April 2017 NUI Galway Professor’s Article is Most Highly Cited in Leading Cancer Journal

Research article published by CÚRAM Investigator the most highly cited article in Cancer Discovery, the premier journal of America Association for Cancer Research

The Cancer Discovery review article, ‘Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Activated Cell Reprogramming in Oncogenesis’ published by Professor Afshin Samali has become the most highly cited article published by the Cancer Discovery journal in 2015.

Professor Afshin Samali, Principal Investigator at CÚRAM, the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research in Medical Devices, is based at NUI Galway where he is Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Apoptosis Research Centre (ARC).

Professor Samali’s research is focused on the fields of cell stress and cell death. His work asks fundamental scientific questions pertaining to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress signaling, its role in the life/death decisions that a cell makes and the associated implications for human disease.

Professor Samali from CÚRAM at NUI Galway, said: “Cellular stress responses are mechanisms activated by cells in response to stressful stimuli, including extremes of temperature, exposure to toxins, and mechanical damage and are crucial in determining cell fate in response to the stress. My research goal is to uncover the signalling pathways that are activated during endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR) and to understand the links between these stress response pathways and cell death and how these processes contribute to human diseases.”

Currently Professor Samali’s team is working on describing ER stress signalling in health and disease and investigating the role of the IRE1 enzyme, one of three major ER stress sensors in breast cancer and targeting IRE1 in pre-clinical models of breast cancer. The team are also investigating how the unfolded protein response (UPR) controls cell death and survival, and how it is regulated and how cell stress responses influence pro-inflammatory processes and the tumour microenvironment in cancer.

“We are interested in identifying and validating new ER stress and cell death related targets for drug discovery efforts. The goal is to develop approaches and compounds that have therapeutic potential for use in a number of different cancers, for example breast cancer, colorectal or paediatric cancers”, Professor Samali added.

Cancer Discovery is the premier cancer information resource published by American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).  Professor Samali’s publication will be highlighted in a special print collection which will include the four most highly cited original research articles and the single-most highly cited review article from each of AACR’s journals. 

To read Professor Afshin Samali’s paper visit: http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2015/05/13/2159-8290.CD-14-1490

-Ends-