Hermann Steller

Hermann Steller works at the forefront of research on apoptosis—a self-destruct program built into each human cell that serves as one of the body’s primary safeguards against cancer. When triggered by the necessary molecular signals, this cell-suicide program helps to ensure that a cell with damaged DNA will not survive long enough to propagate a tumor-initiating genetic flaw.

Research by Dr. Steller has important implications for understanding breast cancer and for designing new interventions. Current chemotherapy and radiation treatments work, in large part, by inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. These measures are of limited use, however, against a resistant tumor cell that can override the self-destruct signals it receives. Better insight into apoptosis is helping medical researchers optimize current treatments, while laying the groundwork for the design of targeted cancer drugs.

Dr. Steller’s investigations are also shedding light on the role that stem cells play in the development of cancer, and how new interventions can be designed to inhibit this process.

« return to BREAST CANCER RESEARCH AT ROCKEFELLER