Abstract

The research of my group concerns the mechanism, regulation and function of autophagy, in health and disease. Our studies focus on three areas: (1) The regulation and mechanism of autophagy, and the role of autophagy and autophagy-related proteins in (2) virus infections and (3) prevention of (neuro)degeneration. My talk will cover two of our research lines in two of those areas.
I will first present our advances, done using yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the model system, in understanding how lipids are supplied during the formation of an autophagosome, the hallmark structure of autophagy. In this context, I will discuss the establishment of membrane contact sites between the phagophore, the precursor structure of the autophagosome, and the endoplasmic reticulum, and how these membrane contact sites are key in coordinating lipid flux into the nascent autophagosome with its biogenesis.
I will then present our findings on the regulation of aggrephagy, the selective degradation of aggregates by autophagy, in mammalian cells. In particular, I will show the data that have led us to the identification of a fragmentation machinery that is essential in conveying aggregates into lysosomal clearance by aggrephagy. We think that this is process plays a central role in preventing aggregate formation and degeneration in healthy cells.

About the speaker
Fulvio Reggiori, PhD, Professor and AIAS-COFUND Fellow, was recently recruited to the Department of Biomedicine from a position as head of the section for Molecular Cell Biology at the Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, at the University Medical Center Groningen, in The Netherlands. He is the recipient of an NNF Laureate Research grant.

Zoom ID: https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/61446248830

The talk is 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of discussion, for a total of 1 hr.

Remember to sign-up for a free sandwich no later than Monday 5 December

Biomedicine seminar organizing committee
Mikkel Vendelbo
Line Reinert
Søren Egedal Degn
Martin Kristian Thomsen