Abstract: Heat shock proteins (Hsps) forms the most ancient defense system of living cells. Having chaperoning functions, Hsps are highly conserved, abundant and ubiquitously expressed in all cells and tissues. Despite technological advancements and enormous input on target based drug designing to combat cancer, anticancer treatment is still being challenged, which is due to, tumor being a polygenic disease. Comparing with conventional biomarker targeting, tumor specific functions of Hsps identify them as possible markers to target cancer. Therefore in the recent years chemotherapeutic intervention of Hsps has emerged as novel anticancer treatment. Induction of cytostasis or apoptosis are the two major mechanism of action from anticancer drugs, however, understanding the nature and interplay of cellular factors that help in regulating the intra-cellular functions in an orchestrated manner can guide through target based therapies. Increasing cancer incidences with civilization and age, furthermore suggest a need for better understanding of cellular environment during any chemotherapeutic intervention. Cell killing through single drug or combinatorial treatments though proposed to be the current concept of anticancer treatment, cancer immunity and bystander-cell safety opposes the hypothesis. The careful understanding of oncogensis and tumor suppression suggests activation of alternative cellular mechanisms to combat cancer instead of killing, one such mechanism is forced cellular senescence of tumor cells. I would like to bring forth the current knowledge on Hsps and their central cellular roles and discuss advantages and disadvantages of Hsp targeting in anticancer treatments. Also demonstrate the progressive outlook of Hsp targeting from our ongoing studies and propose Hsp targeting as tumor suppressor mechanism.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Amere Subbarao Sreedhar is a senior scientist of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India. His research interests are molecular basis of stress response, heat shock proteins in biology and medicine, and evaluation of natural products for potential anticancer effects. He has eighteen years of versatile research experience in the areas of developmental biology, biochemical pharmacology, cell and molecular biology, molecular medicine, and plant biochemistry. He is a life member of quite a few scientific societies and editorial member of a few National and International Journals. He published 30 research papers in reviewed journals, wrote book chapters and edited books, and presented 53 research papers at various National and International meetings. He received prestigious National and International research awards such as Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (twice), Fast Track Young Scientist Research award (twice), Physiological Society award from Hungarian Academy of Sciences, National Overseas Research Award etc., to work in various countries and different research laboratories.