Dr Najoua Lalaoui is a Group Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in the Organogenesis Program. She completed her PhD at the University of Burgundy, during which she studied the mechanism of resistance to apoptosis induced by the cytokine TRAIL.

In 2010, after being awarded a French ARC postdoctoral Fellowship, she accepted a postdoctoral position at La Trobe University and then at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her postdoctoral research focused on apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis and inflammatory signalling pathways triggered by innate immune ligands. She had a particular interest in determining the role of the TNF regulators RIPK1 and IAP. Her research on IAP inhibitors called Smac-mimetic accelerated their clinical development for the treatment of cancer (Cancer Cell 2016; Cell Death Differentiation 2020). She also revealed new regulatory checkpoints controlling RIPK1 functions (Molecular Cell 2017; Nature 2020).

Throughout her research career, Dr Najoua Lalaoui has constantly secured research funding as a lead investigator through the ‘Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer’, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Cancer Australia and the Worldwide Cancer Research support. Her laboratory uses various biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology techniques, and mouse models to investigate the causes, consequences and types of cell death activated by the innate immune receptors of the TNF and the TLR families. This fundamental knowledge is applied to reveal novel therapeutic interventions for cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Najoua Lalaoui lab