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Scientist Profile: Marcus Peter, Ph.D.
Marcus Peter, Ph.D., and his team are making provocative Discoveries about signaling pathways and their role in programmed cell death. In the first row (left to right) are Scott Shell, Roshan Ara Ahmed, Marcus E. Peter, Sun Mi Park; second row from left to right: Tharinda Rajapaksha, Christine Feig, Joe Zullo, Ben Boyerinas and Robert Schickel. (Photograph by David Christopher).
In Pursuit of Truth
If your work tends to challenge the status quo, it helps to be in an environment that supports freedom of inquiry. Marcus Peter, Ph.D., Professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research has taken full advantage of that openness at the University of Chicago, where his research is leading to provocative discoveries related to the signaling pathways involved in apoptosis or programmed cell death.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom about the process of cell death, his recent research indicates that the "killer" enzymes and "killer" genes employed in some forms of cancer therapy may actually have an opposite effect, promoting the survival of cells, including cancer cells and causing resistant tumors to grow rather than shrink. He is also researching the double life of FADD, which has been viewed as a "killer" protein but which may play a role in cell proliferation. His findings have significant implications for established cancer therapy.
"There is a very strong dogma in cancer research," Dr. Peter observes. "I am not going out to break it. I just want to get to the truth." His groundbreaking research has netted three large R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health, including one specific to the tumor-promoting activities of Fas. He is quick to point out that his preliminary results must first be demonstrated in vivo before any conclusions can be drawn about current chemotherapy practices. Nevertheless, one reviewer of his grant proposal for the NIH commented that his initial findings were so critical that they must be tested further, even if the results ultimately prove negative.
Dr. Peter came to the University of Chicago in 1999 from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, where his pioneering research led to the cloning of caspase-8, a protein involved in the Death Inducing Signaling Complex (DISC), which his team also discovered, earning the Walther and Christine Richtzenhain Prize for Experimental Cancer Research. The award is given every other year to a scientist under the age of 40 who has done outstanding research in experimental cancer biology in a German institution. That same work received recognition from Science magazine as one of the top 10 most important discoveries in all the natural sciences in 1996. Today, his research papers are among the most frequently cited in the world.
Dr. Peter conducts his research with a relatively small laboratory team, composed of two post-doctoral researchers, three students and one technician. "That's the way I like to work," he says. "We work very closely as a team. Everyone in the group has a common aim and a common goal."
He also credits his faculty colleagues for theirr willingness to collaborate and share their findings. "We have joint lab meetings, which allows us the flexibility to pick up new techniques and to quickly benefit from the work of others."
Dr. Peter says he particularly appreciates the opportunity to investigate the role of cell death in its various forms, rather than being limited strictly to one area of study, such as immunology, as some institutions do. "There is barely any disease where apoptosis is not misregulated," he observes. "I wanted complete freedom over what I study. Here, I can do whatever I want to pursue my goals and move the science further."