| Cell Fate and its Regulation in Health and Disease |
| The International Cell Death Society Presents |
| Organizers:
Marie Veronique Clément Richard A. Lockshin Shazib Pervaiz Zahra Zakeri
|
| May 28-30, 2025
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore |
| 11:00am – 12:45pm | Registration
ICDS 2025 MCs: Marie-Veronique CLEMENT (Singapore) and Shan J.A. PERVAIZ (France) |
| 12:45pm – 1:00pm
|
Opening Address by Co-Chairs of ICDS 2025
Zahra ZAKERI* and Shazib PERVAIZ# *Professor Emerita, Queen’s College Department of Biology, City University of New York, NY, USA #Professor, Department of Physiology and NUS Centre for Cancer Research, YLL School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore |
| Award Lectures | Chaired by: Marie-Veronique CLEMENT, Singapore |
| 1:00pm – 1:15pm | Marie HARDWICK, USA, presenting Jerry Chipuk on behalf of Richard LOCKSHIN, USA |
| 1:15pm – 2:00pm | Award Lecture 1 (Keynote 1)
Jerry CHIPUK, USA Precisely 1.5 – 2 billion years of mitochondrial control in cell death decisions Director of Cell Biology, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, USA |
| 2:00pm – 2:15pm | Raymond BIRGE, USA, presenting Shazib Pervaiz |
| 2:15pm – 3:00pm | Award Lecture 2 (Keynote 2)
Shazib PERVAIZ, Singapore The Radical Biology of Oxygen in Cancer Cell Fate Signaling |
| 3:00pm – 3:20pm | Presentation of Awards
Marie-Veronique CLEMENT to invite Raymond BIRGE (USA) and Marianne CRONJE (South Africa) for presentation of ICDS lifetime achievement awards |
| 3:20pm – 3:45pm | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
| SESSION 1
(Day 1) |
Theme: Cell Fate and Immunity
Chaired by: Ann-Marie CHACKO, Singapore Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore |
| 3:45pm – 4:15pm | Dmitri KRYSKO, Belgium
Ferroptosis-armed dendritic cells for glioma immunotherapy Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium |
| 4:15pm – 4:45pm | Raymond BIRGE, USA
Targeting phospholipid scramblase and phosphatidylserine externalization in the cancer microenvironment |
| 4:45pm – 5:15pm | Marc DIEDERICH, South Korea
Harnessing controlled necrosis for immunogenic vaccination against myeloid Leukemia Professor, Department of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul, S. Korea |
| END OF DAY 1 | |
29th May 2025, Thursday
| SESSION 2
(Day 2) |
Theme: Signaling Pathways in Cell Fate
Chaired by: Reshma TANEJA, Singapore Professor and Head, Department of Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 9:00am – 9:30am | Seamus MARTIN, Ireland
DNA damage-induced cell death versus cell senescence: What doesn’t kill you, makes you stranger Professor, Department of Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland |
| 9:30am – 10:00am | Barbara CONRADT, UK
Revisiting how the C. elegans apoptosis pathway is activated Professor and Head, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, University College London, England, UK |
| 10:00am – 10:30am | Kanaga SABAPATHY, Singapore
p53 isoforms in cancer and fertility Professor and Chair, School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore |
| 10:30am – 10:45am | Yinghui LI, Singapore – Short Talk
TWEAK/Fn14 signalling driven super-enhancer reprogramming promotes metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, NTU, Singapore |
| 10:45am – 11:05am | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
| SESSION 3
(Day 2) |
Theme: Mitochondrial Metabolism and Cell Fate Chaired by: Thilo HAGEN, Singapore Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 11:05am – 11:35am | Stephen CHONG, Singapore
Targeting the phosphorylation of Bcl-2 family members in venetoclax-resistant hematologic malignancies LKY Research Fellow, Department of Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 11:35am – 12:05pm | Dhyan CHANDRA, USA
Mitochondrial unfolded protein response-dependent survival signaling promotes neuroendocrine prostate cancer Professor, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY, USA |
| 12:05pm – 12:35pm | Marie HARDWICK, USA
Regulation of the mitochondrial ATP synthase by BCL-xL Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Flash Talks 1 | Chaired by: Claudia CERELLA, Luxembourg
Principal Investigator, Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire du Cancer, Luxembourg |
| 12:35pm – 12:50pm | 3 Flash Talks selected from Abstracts |
| 12:50pm – 2:00pm | Lunch |
| Session 4
(Day 2) |
Theme: Stress Response Signaling in Cell Fate Chaired by: Sharad KUMAR, Australia Chair, Centre of Cancer Biology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia |
| 2:00pm – 2:30pm | Anne-Sophie ARMAND, France
Role of GPRC6A expressing cells in human prostate cancer |
| 2:30pm – 3:00pm | Samuel KATZ, USA
The BCL-2 family member BOK regulates neuronal cell fate Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA |
| 3:00pm – 3:15pm | John CHUA, Singapore – Short Talk
Proteomic analyses of early brain proteome alterations in Alzheimer’s disease Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 3:15pm – 3:30pm | Eli ARAMA, Israel – Short Talk
The Initiator Caspase Drives Compensatory Proliferation During Epithelial Tissue Regeneration After Ionizing Radiation Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel |
| 3:30pm – 5:30pm | Poster Session and Coffee/Tea Break |
| 6:30pm – 9:30pm | Gala Dinner (By Invitation only) |
| END OF DAY 2 | |
30th May 2025, Friday
| SESSION 5
(Day 3) |
Theme: Cell Fate in Oncogenesis and Cancer Therapy Chaired by: Alan Prem KUMAR, Singapore Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 9:00am – 9:30am | Marie ARSENIAN-HENRIKSSON, Sweden
Metabolic reprogramming by MYC inhibition as precision medicine in childhood neuroblastoma and clear cell renal carcinoma Professor, Department of Molecular Tumor Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden |
| 9:30am – 10:00am | Alessandro CARRER, Italy
Cholesterol homeostasis tunes cellular sensitivity to ferroptosis Group Leader, Veneto Institute for Molecular Medicine, Padua, Italy |
| 10:00am – 10:15am | Mengge YU, Singapore – Short Talk
The BIM deletion polymorphism: Dissecting its role in leukemic stem cell survival and therapeutic response Research Fellow, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore |
| 10:15am – 10:30am | Ying Yu LIANG, Singapore – Short Talk
Capturing the dynamic interactome during cell death and drug-induced resistance mechanisms using time resolved MS-CETSA Research Fellow, IMCB, ASTAR, Singapore |
| 10:30am – 10:50am | Coffee/Tea Break |
| SESSION 6
(Day 3) |
Theme: Therapeutic Targets in Cancer Cell Fate Signalling Chaired by: Marianne CRONJE, South Africa Professor and Head, School of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| 10:50am – 11:20am | Derrick ONG Sek Tong, Singapore
Uncovering novel glioblastoma dependencies for mechanism-guided therapies |
| 11:20am – 11:50am | Boon Cher GOH, Singapore
Tumor derived extracellular vesicles are biologically active as cell-cell communicators Professor, Cancer Science Institute and Department of Pharmacology & Department of Medicine, YLL School of Medicine, NUS/NUHS, Singapore |
| 11:50am – 12:20pm | Shruti BHATT, Singapore
Rewiring apoptosis: A new therapeutic window for TP53-mutant cancers |
| 12:20pm – 12:35pm | Chit Fang CHEOK, Singapore – Short Talk
Mechanism of fork remodelling: insights into therapeutic targeting |
| 12:35pm – 2:10pm | Lunch and Poster Session ICDS Board Meeting |
| SESSION 7
(Day 3) |
Theme: Cell Fate in Homeostasis and Disease Response Chaired by: Lih Wen DENG Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and N2CR, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 2:10pm – 2:40pm | Franck OURY, France
Hypothalamic control of cognition and aging Principal Investigator, Institut Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France |
| 2:40pm – 3:10pm | Ali SHAZIB, USA
Fate in programmed death signaling- oral events associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors |
| 3:10pm – 3:25pm | Yunus AKKOC, Turkey – Short Talk
The Role of Autophagy in the Tumor Microenvironment Research Fellow, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey |
| Flash Talks 2 | Chaired by: Karen Carmelina CRASTA, Singapore
Research Assistant Professor, NUS Healthy Longevity Program and Department of Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore
|
| 3:25pm – 3:40pm | 3 Flash Talks selected from Abstracts |
| 3:40pm – 4:00pm | Tea Break |
| SESSION 8
(Day 3) |
Theme: Cell Fate in Age-Related Disorders Chaired by: Tugba Bagci ONDER, Turkey Professor, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey |
| 4:00pm – 4:15pm | Andreas BERGMANN, USA – Short talk
Mechanism of apoptosis-induced proliferation in Drosophila Professor, Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA |
| 4:15pm – 4:30pm | Naiyang FU, Australia – Short Talk
MCL‑1 safeguards activated hair follicle stem cells to enable adult hair regeneration Principal Investigator, WEHI of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia |
| 4:30pm – 5:00pm | Mick LEE, Singapore
Understanding cardiomyocyte cell fate and gene regulation in the heart Research Fellow, Cardiovascular Research Institute, NUS, Singapore |
| 5:00pm – 5:30pm | Brian KENNEDY, Singapore
The Longevity Revolution Professor, NUS Healthy Longevity Program and Departments of Biochemistry & Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, NUS, Singapore |
| 5:30pm – 5:45pm | Awards and Closing Remarks |
| End of Day 3 | |
Awardees:
Jerry Edward Chipuk
Although our awardee, Jerry Edward Chipuk, described his approach, in a wonderful interview in the Journal of Cell Biology[1], as “My approach is to complete goals one at a time, and not distract myself by worrying about the lists of items to complete,” many of his friends and colleagues would venture that “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,” might be a better description. Jerry represents the new generation of scientists, strongly focused on a central point of cell biology—the mitochondrion—and asking the extent of mitochondrial involvement in everything. Thus, while he is Associate Director of Shared Resources at the Tisch Cancer Institute of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, he is also associated with the Department of Oncological Sciences, the Department of Dermatology, the Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, and the Mitochondrial Analysis Facility. As a new-generation scientist, he reaches into several highly technical worlds beyond basic biochemistry, cell biology, or biophysics, such as high- and ultra-resolution microscopy, using fluors and other traceable molecules along with the most modern means of data mining and structural analysis to follow the number, shape, polarization, fusion and fission, and life and death of mitochondria in many types of cancer and other diseases. A quick perusal of the titles of the over 80 papers he has authored or co-authored reveals the diversity of his interests and gives a glimpse into the new vision of how mitochondria react to and control key moments in the lives of cells, as expressed by his professed interests in mitochondrial dynamics, cancer mechanisms, and melanocyte biology. Based on his work, this generation of scholars sees mitochondria not as neatly arrayed collection of membranes that the early electron microscopists saw, but as living creatures, transporting and binding materials, actively moving, and in many senses determining how a cell lives or dies[2],[3]. His ability to maintain a sense of the importance of an astonishing array of techniques and devices is an inspiration.
Gerry’s catholic interests and love of travel have led him also to build a highly original and fascinating collection of artworks and artifacts from around the world. That collection bespeaks his approach to research, and why we honor him today: Ask everything, never be afraid to explore further, well into territories you do not yet know, examine it carefully and critically, but with empathy and love. It is a lifestyle that all of us can admire.
[1] O’Donnell MA and Infarinato N, Jerry Chipuk: A powerhouse for mitochondrial biology. J. Cell Biol. 2018 Vol. 217 No. 8 2599–2600, https://doi.org/ 10.1083/ jcb.201807034
[2] Chipuk JE, Mohammed J N, Gelles J D, Chen Y 2021, Mechanistic connections between mitochondrial biology and regulated cell death. Dev Cell. 2021:1221–1233. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.03.033
[3] Pucadyil T J, Chipuk J E, Liu Y, O’Neill L, Chen Q, 2023. The multifaceted roles of mitochondria Mol Cell. 2023 Mar 16;83(6):819–823. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.02.030
SHAZIB PERVAIZ
On behalf of Drs. Zahra Zakeri and Richard Lockshin, and the Board of Directions of the international Cell Death Society (ICDS), it is my great pleasure to present the 2025 ICDS Prize to Professor Shazib Pervaiz, for his outstanding contributions to field of Cell Death over the past 3+ decades.
Shazib, a native of Pakistan, received his BS degree from King Edward Medical College, Lahore in 1984 before emigrating to the US to complete a PhD from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and postdoctoral training from Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital in Boston.
It was during his postdoctoral work that Shazib became interested in cell death, exploring how T cells kill tumor cells and the role of novel cytokines in the differentiation of T helper cells.
After his training at Harvard, Shazib migrated to NUS in Singapore where has been on the faculty for almost 30 years, achieving rank of Full Professor, Senior Faculty to the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, and previously Deputy Director of the NUS Medical Institutes. He has numerous research, teaching, and academic awards, and visiting scientist positions all over the world, including in the United States, France, China, and Australia.
Over the last 30 years, Shazib has developed a bold, and–somewhat true to his nature–adventurous research program that at times challenges and questions dogmas. With a focus on redox signaling and biology in cancer development, his laboratory has elegantly shown that reactive oxygen species, and a pro-oxidant state, can foster adaptations in cancer cells that result in drug resistance. His lab has discovered many key signaling pathways in ROS adapted tumor cells, including how ROS targets kinases and phosphatases (the latter having active cysteine residues in the catalytic site) and how ROS impinges on Bcl-2 and mitochondrial/caspase -mediated cell death. He and his colleagues have defined new terminologies of Onco-ROS and Tumor Suppressor ROS that are applicable to a wide range of cancers. His more recent work identifying compounds that target mutant KRAS (the gene that makes K-Ras, Kirsten Rat Sarcoma protein) to super-activate ROS are poised to contribute to a new class of targeted therapeutics. Since KRAS is very frequently mutated in colorectal and several other cancers, the ability to induce only the mutant cells to activate death pathways would be a much less toxic and very promising therapeutic advance.
In addition to his wonderful science, Shazib is passionate for life’s adventures. He is a competitive athlete and a certified life coach, who strongly believes in the remarkable power of human spirit and introspection. Incidentally, Shazib won second place in his age-group at the AACR 5K run in Chicago, and as a researcher is figuratively running well ahead of his competition. On behalf of the ICDS and the ICDS Board of Trustees, it is our great pleasure to present you the 2025 ICDS Prize for outstanding contributions to Cell Death.
IN MEMORIAM: JOHN FOXTON ROSS KERR
Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie 19721 is a classic paper that should be on the reading list of cell biology classes worldwide. Likewise, an obituary in Cell Death and Differentiation2 sums John Kerr’s admirable career as a founder of the field.
It is also worth reflecting on the man that John Kerr was.
He wrote in an era before social media and even Microsoft Word offer to compose all our thoughts. John had been writing about “shrinkage necrosis” for several years, but the term “apoptosis” was elegant and eloquent. Not only did the word imply universality, but it also captured the sense that cell death was the end of a universal cycle that began with mitosis, and that cell death was as important and as worthy of study as the beginning. Thus, that paper launched a generation of researchers.
It was also typical of John the individual: precise, profound, thoughtful, gentle, diffident and caring; meticulous in detail as he collected regional variants of Lepidoptera so that we could better understand the mechanics of how evolution worked; gentle and loving with Maureen, and considerate to everyone he met. That was how he was when Zahra and I first met him in Sardinia in 1989, and every other time that we encountered him. Sharad Kumar shares that he typically hand-wrote letters of congratulations to national colleagues. He is an exemplar of why students should learn about the lives of scientists and not just their work. We will cherish his memory.
John F R Kerr (Contributed by Maureen Field Kerr); letter from John Kerr to Sharad Kumar (contributed by Sharad Kumar).
1Kerr JF, Wyllie AH, Currie AR. Apoptosis: a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. Br J Cancer. 1972 Aug;26(4):239-57. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1972.33. PMID: 4561027; PMCID: PMC2008650.
2Cummings, M.C., Vaux, D.L., Strasser, A. et al. John F. R. Kerr (1934–2024). Cell Death Differ 31, 955–956 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-024-013
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