The aim of our group is to understand the factors regulating programmed cell death in cancer cells. Since it is known that inhibition of cell death mechanisms is a common event in tumour development, this poses problems for many forms of chemotherapy which utilize cell death pathways, leading to drug resistance. We are investigating both known cell death regulators as well as searching for novel proteins that control cell death and chemosensitivity. We envisage that the knowledge gained from our studies will be translated and lead to the improvement of existing clinical regimens or new targets for therapeutic intervention.