Talk Title: Life, death, and the discovery of PDAR : the Pol II Degradation-dependent Apoptotic Response

Abstract: Many cellular functions are considered “life essential”, but why are they actually essential? Why does a cell die, for instance, when transcription or translation are inhibited, and can we improve cancer therapies by developing a more complete understanding of how cellular life/death decisions are made? To answer these questions, we developed a suite of new tools for studying all forms of cell death. Using these tools, we discovered a previously uncharacterized signaling pathway that we named the Pol II Degradation-dependent Apoptotic Response (PDAR). Activation of PDAR drives the lethality of transcriptional inhibition, and in the absence of PDAR , cells will survive in the absence of transcription. This seminar will focus on how we discovered the PDAR pathway, the contribution of PDAR to cancer therapies, and how this discovery changes our understanding of essentiality and what is (and isn’t) intrinsically stressful to cells.

Current Research/bio: Mike Lee is a Professor of Systems Biology at the UMass Chan Medical School. His research program is focused on Systems Pharmacology of anti-cancer therapies, with an emphasis on understanding the signaling and regulatory mechanisms controlling drug-induced cell death. He is originally from Seattle, Washington, and received his academic training at the University of Washington (BS, Statistics/Cell Biology), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD, Pharmacology), and MIT (postdoctoral fellowship with Mike Yaffe). 

• Speaker: Mike Lee PhD, Associate Professor Department of Systems Biology, UMass Chan Medical School
• Monday 27 April 2026, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: CRUK CI Lecture Theatre.
• Series: Seminars on Quantitative Biology @ CRUK Cambridge Institute ; organiser: .