Live and let die: inverting the story of the Caspases

The caspases are the main factors driving the orchestrated programme of cell suicide known as apoptosis. Since this evolutionarily conserved protein family was associated with such biological function, most of the scientific efforts were focused towards understanding their molecular activation and function during cell death. However, an emerging body of evidence has uncovered a repertoire of non-lethal roles within a large variety of cell types, including stem cells. My group is interested in deciphering the biological relevance of these novel non-apoptotic roles of caspases and their molecular mechanisms of regulation. To this end we combine the powerful genetic tractability of Drosophila and mammalian models. During the seminar I will discuss our latest findings about the aforementioned topic of research as well as the potential implications in both, normal development and pathological situations.