Dr. Carmine Settembre - Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM)
Abstract
From Bulk to Selective Autophagy: A Journey through Its Physiological and Therapeutic Relevance
Macroautophagy (commonly referred to as autophagy) is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process that degrades cytosolic components by sequestering them into double-membrane autophagic vesicles (AVs), which are subsequently broken down by lysosomes. The physiological and medical significance of autophagy is widely acknowledged, but we still lack important knowledge on the mechanism governing autophagy in response tissue specific needs.
In this talk, I will discuss emerging pathways that regulate substrate selection during autophagy in response to various metabolic, developmental, and disease-related stimuli. Special attention will be given to new mechanisms controlling the degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum and ribosomes through autophagy. These findings challenge the long-standing view that starvation-induced autophagy is a bulk, non-selective process and open new possibilities for the development of novel therapeutic approaches based on the selective autophagy modulation.
Bio
Carmine Settembre graduated in 2002 in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Naples “Federico II”. In 2002 he joined TIGEM as a PhD student, after his PhD he moved to the United States as a post-doctoral fellow first at Columbia University in New York and then at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. In 2011 he became Assistant Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. In 2013, thanks to the Dulbecco Telethon Institute (DTI) career award program, he set up his own laboratory at TIGEM. He became Associate Professor in Histology and Embryology at the University of Naples “Federico II” in 2018. Dr. Settembre has received different awards such as the Ian Boyle award from the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) and has been elected as an EMBO Young Investigator. He is recipient of prestigious grants from the European community (ERC StG, ERC PoC, ERC Consolidator) for the study of autophagy roles in health and diseases.
