Dr. Grant Dewson's research focuses on understanding the molecular and coordinated control of two fundamental mitochondrial processes: apoptosis and mitophagy (mitochondrial quality control). His research explained how the essential apoptosis effector proteins BAX and BAK kill cells, how they are tightly controlled and how this control goes awry to cause diseases including neurodegeneration and cancer. His teams' research has identified new avenues to manipulate apoptosis therapeutically. More recently, he described new links between apoptotic cell death and damage-induced mitophagy, unveiling new roles for Parkin in cell death.

Since 2011, Dr. Dewson has been a laboratory head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, where he leads a collaborative research team funded by government and philanthropic sources. His team has established new biological tools (including cell and pre-clinical models), integrating proteomic and genetics approaches, with the goal to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease.