Outstanding Researcher Award (Team Award)

Associate Professor CLEMENT, Marie-Veronique (Principal Investigator)

PhD, MSc, BSc (University of Paris VI Jussieu)
Department of Biochemistry


Associate Professor PERVAIZ, Shazib (Principal Investigator)

PhD (Southern Methodist University), MBBS (King Edward Medical College)
Department of Physiology

“ We are working on the premise that contrary to the age-old dogma linking reactive oxygen species (ROS) to cell and tissue damage, their sustained elevation, particularly that of superoxide anion, could contribute to cancer cell survival by promoting resistance to death signals. ”

Research Collaboration
worked together for the past 8 years on understanding the mechanism(s) underlying the regulation of apoptotic signalling by intracellular ROS

Research Achievements
The success of their collaborative effort has:
  • shed light on fundamental mechanisms governing and regulating cell death, which could have tremendous implications in the understanding of carcinogenesis and drug resistance in cancer therapeutics;
  • redefined the role of intracellular ROS in cancer cell death and survival;
  • made them the first to show the divergent effects of intracellular superoxide and hydrogen peroxide on apoptotic signalling pathways in cancer cells.

Research Strengths
  • a shared common research interest in deciphering/elucidating the role of ROS in life and death of cancer cells;
  • successful team work built on the constant stimulation they get from each other to further their hypotheses and defend their respective ideas.

Publication Credits
  • jointly published a total of 19 papers under this collaboration with a total impact factor of 116.694. Their papers have appeared in top tier journals such as EMBO Journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Blood, Oncogene, Cell death and Differentiation and Cancer Research;
  • contributed individually or together 11 invited reviews and 4 book chapters on the subject of ROS and cell response to death triggers.

International Standing
  • both Professors are Fellows of Harvard Medical School/MGH, Boston, MA, USA
  • Professor Pervaiz serves on the scientific advisory board, AutoGenomics Inc., San Diego, US

Awards & Accolades (in recognition of their collaborative work)
  • both Professors received the Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Medicine, with a citation from the Dean, 2005;
  • Professor Clement received an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 9th World Congress on Advances in Oncology and 7th International Symposium on Molecular Medicine, 2004;
  • Professor Pervaiz received the Faculty of Medicine Outstanding Researcher Award, 2002.

Research Aspiration
to decipher the underlying mechanism of redox regulation of death signalling to understand the problem of drug resistance in cancer cells and provide a rational basis for the selection of combinatorial strategies in chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer.