David Vaux discovered that the putative oncogene BCL2 encoded a protein that inhibited the cell's self-destruct mechanism. BCL2 was the first component of the cell death mechanism to be identified in any organism. This finding showed that inhibition of physiological cell death promoted the development of cancer. He showed that the mechanism of programmed cell death in the worm C. elegans and the mechanism of apoptosis in mammalian cells was related, and conserved through evolution. By creating transgenic mice that overexpressed BCL2, and crossing them with transgenic mice that over-expressed the growth promoting oncogene c-MYC, he showed that they synergized to promote cancer in vivo. He later identifed members of the Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP) family, as well as their antagonists SMAC/DIABLO and HTRA2/OMI. His association with IDUN and ABBOTT enabled the first testing of BCL2 family inhibitors in Melbourne in vitro, in vivo, and in the clinic.