Dr. Bar-Peled is exploring how the protease Caspase-8 regulates T cell activation, which represents a critical step in the adaptive immune response to cancer. While Caspase-8 has long been appreciated to be essential for T cell activation, the molecular mechanisms underlying its role in this process remain poorly understood. His work will focus on identifying and characterizing the proteins cleaved by Caspase-8, which may provide additional therapeutic avenues to activate T cells to target malignant cells in cancer patients.
