Affiliation: University of Leicester

Joanna Fox obtained her PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from The Institute of Cancer Research, University of London, before joining the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford where Joanna discovered the phospho-regulation of pro-apoptotic protein BAK and its role in determining the apoptotic threshold of cancer cells. Joanna then moved to the MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Cambridge to work as a structural biologist determining the structural architecture of the critical death Inducing Signalling Complex (DISC) by Cryo-Electron Microscopy. Now as an independent Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology-Wellcome Trust ISSF Fellows at the University of Leicester she is interested in the regulation and structural architecture of apoptotic proteins complexes that determine cell fate outcomes. More specifically, her work focuses on how key protein complexes assemble and regulate the ability of a cell to commit to intrinsic apoptosis. This detailed analysis provides mechanistic insight into how the apoptotic threshold of cells is determined and may guide future drug development.