Professor John Silke

John Silke is the Leader of the Infection, Inflammation and Immunity Theme at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. He completed a law degree in King’s College, London (1989), a Biochemistry degree at Churchill College, Cambridge (1992), a PhD in Zürich, Switzerland, with Prof. Walter Schaffner (1997), and a post-doc with Prof. David Vaux in the WEHI, Australia (1997-2005).

His post-doc research centred around cell death mechanisms and in particular the role of Inhibitor of APoptosis proteins (IAPs) in regulating cell death. My lab in La Trobe University (2006-2011) and WEHI (2011-) has focused on exploring the functions of IAPs and
the transcriptional and programmed cell death pathways that they regulate in both cancer and inflammation. Highlights of his research include senior author papers in Cell and Nature showing how IAP antagonist drugs work to kill cancer cells, that cell death can cause inflammation and most recently defining a new cell death inflammatory syndrome that we designated CRIA.

External links:

• ORCID