Development of Novel Anti-cancer Drugs Based on Studies of Molecular Signaling in Apoptosis Using Biophysical Methods

Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is a very important cellular process that plays an important role in cancer. In this review, we summarize our research in three related areas : (l) Using single living cell analysis techniques to obtain important insight about the signalling mechanisms of apoptosis in mammalian cells. (2) Development of novel molecular bio-sensors for detecting caspase activation within a single living cell based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) method. These sensors not only enable us to study the regulating mechanisms of enzyme activation in an in vivo condition, they also provide a powerful tool for high-throughput screening of new drugs. (3) Using such biosensors, we identified several purified compounds in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) that could be developed into novel anti-cancer drugs.