Scott J. Dixon

As a graduate student and short-term postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto I studied genetic networks that regulate cell viability in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and in the single-celled eukaryotes S. cerevisiae and S. pombe, respectively. As a postdoctoral fellow, I demonstrated that the small molecule erastin inhibits the membrane cystine/glutamate transporter system xc-, depletes the cell of glutathione and activates a novel iron-dependent, oxidative cell death pathway termed ferroptosis. Currently a major goal of my lab is to understand the interaction between intracellular metabolism and cell death. Our research program integrates techniques and model systems including small molecule and proteomic screening, biochemical analysis of protein function and model organism genetics.