I am currently a Senior Research Officer in Professor Andreas Strasser’s laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne. I investigate how the tumour suppressor protein p53—often referred to as the “guardian of the genome”—protects cells from malignant transformation. Under normal conditions, p53 safeguards tissue integrity by directing damaged cells to repair DNA, arrest cell division, or undergo programmed cell death. However, mutations in the TP53 gene occur in approximately 50% of human cancers and are frequently associated with therapy resistance, posing a major challenge in the clinic. My research focuses on understanding how p53 drives distinct cell fate outcomes in different cellular contexts, including cell cycle arrest, survival, or apoptosis. A central goal of my work is to identify strategies that shift the p53 response from growth arrest toward active induction of cell death, thereby improving the effectiveness of cancer therapies. In parallel, I study proteins that interact with p53 and modulate its activity, with the aim of targeting these regulatory networks to enhance p53-mediated killing of cancer cells.