Outstanding Faculty Researcher Award

Award Winner for year 2002

Associate Professor Shazib Pervaiz
Dept of Physiology

Assoc Prof Pervaiz has made major and significant contributions in the field of drug-induced apoptosis. His group has used photoactivation to generate biologically active molecules that may be useful in inducing apoptosis. His work using these novel biologically active compounds has uncovered some novel mechanisms in apoptosis. His group was among the first to show that drug induced caspase 8 activation occurs independent of death receptor CD 95. Further, they also showed that cytochrome C translocation can occur independent of mitochondrial permeability changes, something that was not previously recognised.

Perhaps most significantly, the group has evidence to suggest that contrary to the general notion, reactive oxygen intermediates such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide do not always result in cell death. This has resulted in a paradigm shift in current thinking regarding the role of oxygen radicals in apoptosis. Their further work to prove their apoptosis that the apoptotic response of tumour cells is a critical balance between intracellular superoxide and hydrogen peroxide will be exciting. These seminal observations of novel effector mechanisms in drug-induced apoptosis could have potential implications in the development of more selective agents to fight drug resistance in cancer.