Powering down: Targeting the cancer cell batteries to stop cancer

Meet the scientist

Barak is the father of a boy and a girl, and he lives with his wife and kids in a small kibbutz in the south of Israel. Before we lived in Leicester, UK, for two years while in my postdoc, and learned to love British culture. His hobbies are rock climbing, listening to music and reading. He loves sci-fi such as Dune

The science

Chaperone proteins work as the ‘maintenance crew’ inside the ‘batteries’ of the cell, called the mitochondria. They help to guide other important proteins around the mitochondria, and make sure these proteins are working properly. This helps the mitochondria to quickly ‘power up’ and produce more energy as soon as the cancer cell needs it. 

Dr Roblat and his team in Israel think that blocking chaperone proteins might make it harder for cancer cells to produce energy in a flexible way. But they need more evidence to know for sure.  Thanks to your support, the team can now gather that evidence, and study in detail exactly how cancer cells use chaperone proteins. As part of this work they will use a special molecular technique to remove these proteins from cancer cells, and then study in the lab how this affects cancer growth and survival. 

Building up a detailed picture of exactly how chaperone proteins work in cancer will help to reveal whether they could be a new target for cancer treatments. These findings will also be immensely valuable to other researchers searching for new ways to treat cancer.