Understanding how cell death signalling can promote cancer

The usual outcome of cell death is complete destruction of the cell. We have shown that under conditions of sub-lethal stress the cell death machinery is only partially engaged and the cell stays alive (a process we called “minority MOMP”). However, the cell accumulates DNA damage and becomes genomically unstable, which can transform the cell into a cancer cell. We recently showed that mitochondrial dysfunction is the underlying basis of this process, since “unwell” mitochondria become more likely to undergo permeabilisation. Given that minority MOMP has roles in innate immunity and inflammation, as well as cancer, we can use these findings to modulate minority MOMP.