- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Collaborators
- Suppliers
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- Research centres
- People
- Alistair Brown
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Assoc Prof Joanna Groom
- Associate Profesor Ian Majewski
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Diana Hansen
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Gemma Kelly
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor John Wentworth
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Kelly Rogers
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Melissa Call
- Associate Professor Misty Jenkins
- Associate Professor Nawaf Yassi
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Rhys Allan
- Associate Professor Rosie Watson
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Shalin Naik
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Tracy Putoczki
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Belinda Phipson
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hamish King
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Jim Whittle
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Nadia Davidson
- Dr Nadia Kershaw
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Rory Bowden
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Sarah Best
- Dr Saskia Freytag
- Dr Shabih Shakeel
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Stephin Vervoort
- Dr Yunshun Chen
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Anne Voss
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor Daniel Gray
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor James McCarthy
- Professor James Murphy
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jeanne Tie
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leanne Robinson
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Melissa Davis
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Czabotar
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Professor Seth Masters
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Clinician-scientist training
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A multi-pronged approach to targeting myeloproliferative neoplasms
- A new paradigm of machine learning-based structural variant detection
- A whole lot of junk or a treasure trove of discovery?
- Advanced imaging interrogation of pathogen induced NETosis
- Analysing the metabolic interactions in brain cancer
- Atopic dermatitis causes and treatments
- Boosting the efficacy of immunotherapy in lung cancer
- Building a cell history recorder using synthetic biology for longitudinal patient monitoring
- Characterisation of malaria parasite proteins exported into infected liver cells
- Deciphering the heterogeneity of the tissue microenvironment by multiplexed 3D imaging
- Defining the mechanisms of thymic involution and regeneration
- Delineating the molecular and cellular origins of liver cancer to identify therapeutic targets
- Developing computational methods for spatial transcriptomics data
- Developing drugs to block malaria transmission
- Developing models for prevention of hereditary ovarian cancer
- Developing statistical frameworks for analysing next generation sequencing data
- Development and mechanism of action of novel antimalarials
- Development of novel RNA sequencing protocols for gene expression analysis
- Discoveries in red blood cell production and function
- Discovering epigenetic silencing mechanisms in female stem cells
- Discovery and targeting of novel regulators of transcription
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Dissecting mechanisms of cytokine signalling
- Doublecortin-like kinases, drug targets in cancer and neurological disorders
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Epigenetics – genome wide multiplexed single-cell CUT&Tag assay development
- Exploiting cell death pathways in regulatory T cells for cancer immunotherapy
- Exploiting the cell death pathway to fight Schistosomiasis
- Finding treatments for chromatin disorders of intellectual disability
- Functional epigenomics in human B cells
- How do nutrition interventions and interruption of malaria infection influence development of immunity in sub-Saharan African children?
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Improving therapy in glioblastoma multiforme by activating complimentary programmed cell death pathways
- Innovating novel diagnostic tools for infectious disease control
- Integrative analysis of single cell RNAseq and ATAC-seq data
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigation of a novel cell death protein
- Malaria: going bananas for sex
- Mapping spatial variation in gene and transcript expression across tissues
- Mechanisms of Wnt secretion and transport
- Multi-modal computational investigation of single-cell communication in metastatic cancer
- Nanoparticle delivery of antibody mRNA into cells to treat liver diseases
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Organoid-based discovery of new drug combinations for bowel cancer
- Organoid-based precision medicine approaches for oral cancer
- Removal of tissue contaminations from RNA-seq data
- Reversing antimalarial resistance in human malaria parasites
- Role of glycosylation in malaria parasite infection of liver cells, red blood cells and mosquitoes
- Screening for novel genetic causes of primary immunodeficiency
- Single-cell ATAC CRISPR screening – Illuminate chromatin accessibility changes in genome wide CRISPR screens
- Spatial single-cell CRISPR screening – All in one screen: Where? Who? What?
- Statistical analysis of single-cell multi-omics data
- Structural and functional analysis of epigenetic multi-protein complexes in genome regulation
- Structural basing for Wnt acylation
- Structure, dynamics and impact of extra-chromosomal DNA in cancer
- Targeted deletion of disease-causing T cells
- Targeting cell death pathways in tissue Tregs to treat inflammatory diseases
- The cellular and molecular calculation of life and death in lymphocyte regulation
- The role of hypoxia in cell death and inflammation
- The role of ribosylation in co-ordinating cell death and inflammation
- Understanding Plasmodium falciparum invasion of red blood cells
- Understanding cellular-cross talk within a tumour microenvironment
- Understanding the genetics of neutrophil maturation
- Understanding the roles of E3 ubiquitin ligases in health and disease
- Unveiling the heterogeneity of small cell lung cancer
- Using combination immunotherapy to tackle heterogeneous brain tumours
- Using intravital microscopy for immunotherapy against brain tumours
- Using nanobodies to understand malaria invasion and transmission
- Using structural biology to understand programmed cell death
- Validation and application of serological markers of previous exposure to malaria
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Abebe Fola
- Andrew Baldi
- Anna Gabrielyan
- Ashley Weir
- Bridget Dorizzi
- Casey Ah-Cann
- Catia Pierotti
- Emma Nolan
- Huon Wong
- Jasmine Rou
- Jing Deng
- Joy Liu
- Kaiseal Sarson-Lawrence
- Komal Patel
- Krishneel Prasa
- Lilly Backshell
- Malvika Kharbanda
- Megan Kent
- Naomi Jones
- Pailene Lim
- Rebecca Delconte
- Roberto Bonelli
- Rune Larsen
- Runyu Mao
- Sarah Garner
- Simona Seizova
- Sophie Collard
- Wayne Cawthorne
- Wil Lehmann
- Yanxiang Meng
- Zhong Yan Gan
- Miles Horton
- Alexandra Gurzau
- Student achievements
- Student association
- Learning Hub
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A generous vision for impactful medical research
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Philanthropy through the power of sisterhood
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- Donors
- WEHI.TV
Cell death

Cell death is an important process in the body as it promotes the removal of unwanted cells. Failure of cells to die, or cells dying when they shouldn’t, can lead to or exacerbate many diseases.
Our research into how and why cells die is leading to new approaches to treating these conditions.
Cell death research at the Institute
Our cell death researchers are:
- Defining how cell death occurs, and how it is regulated.
- Discovering how cell death impacts diseases including cancer and inflammatory conditions.
- Developing treatments that modify the function of cell death proteins, as new treatments for disease.
Why do cells die?
Cell death is an important process in the body. It removes cells in situations including:
- When cells are not needed, such as during certain stages of development.
- To create a structure in the body, for example, the outer layer of the skin is made of dead cells.
- To remove excess cells, such as white blood cells after an infection has been cleared.
- If cells are damaged, such as by radiation or toxins.
- When cells are infected by viruses.
How do cells die?
Cells can die because they are damaged, but most cells die by killing themselves.
There are several distinct ways in which a cell can die. Some occur by an organised, ‘programmed’ process. Some cell death processes leave no trace of the dead cell, whereas others activate the immune system with substances from the dead cell.
Apoptosis: is a form of cell death that prevents immune activation. Apoptotic cells have a particular microscopic appearance. The cell activates proteins called caspases that are normally dormant. These caspases dismantle the cell from within. The apoptotic cell breaks into small packages that can be engulfed by other cells. This prevents the cell contents leaking out of the dying cell and allows the components to be recycled.
Necrosis: occurs when a cell dies due to lack of a blood supply, or due to a toxin. The cells’ contents can leak out and damage neighbouring cells, and may also trigger inflammation.
Necroptosis: is similar in appearance to necrosis, in that the dying cell’s contents can leak out. However, like apoptosis, necroptosis is a programmed suicide process triggered by specific proteins in the dying cell.
Pyroptosis: is a form of cell death that occurs in some cells infected with certain viruses or bacteria. A cell dying by pyroptosis releases molecules, called cytokines, that alert neighbouring cells to the infection. This triggers inflammation, a protective response that restricts the spread of the viruses and bacteria.
Cell death proteins
Many proteins have been discovered that control whether a cell dies by the processes of apoptosis, necroptosis or pyroptosis. Some key cell death control proteins include:
Caspases: these enzymes are switched on in apoptotic cells, and digest other proteins to bring about cell death. Some caspases have roles in processes other than cell death.
Bcl-2 family proteins: these proteins interact with each other to determine whether a cell undergoes apoptosis or stays alive. Some Bcl-2 family proteins promote survival, and block apoptosis. Others are ‘pro-death’, and trigger apoptosis.
Death receptors: these are proteins on the surface of the cell. When they are bound by certain cytokines (hormone-like signalling proteins), they cause changes in the cell that can lead to cell death.
RIP kinases: two proteins called ‘RIP1 kinase’ and ‘RIP3 kinase’ trigger necroptosis.
IAPs: or ‘inhibitor of apoptosis proteins’ can prevent cell death. They can do this by blocking several cell death proteins including caspases and RIP1 kinase.
SMAC/Diablo: is an inhibitor of IAPs. In healthy cells, SMAC is stored away from IAPs, in parts of the cell called mitochondria. When cell death is triggered, SMAC can leak out and block IAPs function. Thus, the release of SMAC out of mitochondria can promote cell death.
How does cell death impact health?
Many diseases are associated with abnormal cell death. Some examples of this are:
Cancer |
Cancer cells often resist cell death, even after anti-cancer treatment. |
Autoimmunity |
Immune cells that attack the body’s own tissues normally die. If this cell death does not occur it can cause diseases such as lupus or type 1 diabetes. |
Viral infection |
Viruses need to keep a cell alive in order to reproduce. Cell death can therefore prevent viral replication. |
Heart attack |
Many cells, including those in the heart and brain, trigger their apoptosis machinery when they lose their blood supply. |
New medicines targeting cell death
Understanding how proteins such as the Bcl-2 family control cell death has led to the development of new drugs to block their function. These have the potential to cause the death of cancer cells, or the immune cells that cause autoimmune disease.
One set of drugs, called ‘BH3 mimetics’ trigger apoptotic cell death. They do so by preventing the action of ‘pro-survival’ Bcl-2 family proteins. Unless blocked, these pro-survival proteins help cancer cells stay alive, even after anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapy.
Clinical trials are underway to determine whether BH3 mimetics can be used to treat certain cancers. BH3-mimetics might also potentially help treat autoimmune diseases by killing disease-causing white blood cells.
SMAC-mimetics are agents that, like the SMAC protein, enhance cell death. They do this by stopping IAPs from blocking cell death. They might also be able to help cells die so that chronic viral infections can be cleared.
There is also considerable interest in agents that can prevent cell death. These could have applications for treating conditions in which there is unwanted cell death, such as stroke, heart attack or neurodegenerative disorders.
Researchers:
Our researchers have discovered a promising strategy for treating cancers that are caused by one of the most common cancer-causing changes in cells.
Our research has revealed the structure of a protein that triggers a form of programmed cell death called necroptosis