About the Workshop
Mitochondria are cells’ energy centers and a central point where a number of signaling pathways leading to cell death converge, leading to activation of apoptotic machinery and impairment of cells’ bioenergetic functions. Moreover, cellular homeostasis is regulated through mitophagy, the specific elimination of mitochondria through autophagy. Since both cellular metabolism and apoptotic pathways are compromised in many cancers, mitochondria-targeting drugs are considered as viable alternatives to eradicate chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells, since they directly initiate mitochondrial perturbations independently of upstream signaling events. This will provide novel insights into the control of mitochondrial functions and their deregulation in human cancers that has a major potential for development of innovative cancer therapeutics.
The overall aim of this EMBO Workshop is to bring together world leaders in several areas of biology and medicine, focusing on mitochondria and cancer from the point of view of cell death, the most efficient way to combat cancer.
