Dorothy Bennett

Dorothy Bennett has made seminal contributions to understanding melanocyte senescence and the role of BCL-2 family anti-apoptotic proteins in maintaining senescent cell viability, work that directly informed the development of navitoclax (ABT-263) as a senolytic agent. Her research demonstrated that senescent cells upregulate BCL-2, BCL-XL, and BCL-W to resist apoptosis despite pro-apoptotic SASP signaling. She showed that navitoclax selectively kills senescent cells by inhibiting these survival proteins. Her work on melanocyte senescence has illuminated the progression from benign nevi to melanoma through senescence bypass.