Autophagy in Tissue Homeostasis and Cancer Image Professor Simon Wilkinson - Principal Investigator, CRUK Senior Fellow Research in a Nutshell Autophagy is an evolutionarily-conserved mechanism by which cells remove old proteins and organelles by transporting them to the lysosome (in effect, a cellular garbage disposal facility). The autophagy pathway also acts as a hub for control of cell fate by degrading specific signalling and structural proteins of the cell. These actions are important for the progression of a number of cancers. We use protein-protein interaction screens, imaging techniques and transgenic models to unpick the molecular events set in train by autophagy within pre-cancerous and cancerous cells. Thusly we gain understanding of new cellular processes that could be targeted for future cancer therapies. Research Programme Image People Simon WilkinsonPrincipal Investigator, CRUK Senior FellowNatalia Jimenez-MorenoPostdocMarisa Di MonacoPostdocMihaela BozicStudentTian En LimStudentCarla Salomo-CollStudentJocelyn BissonStudentKatie Winnington-IngramResearch TechnicianContactS.Wilkinson@ed.ac.uk Simon Wilkinson - Research Information CollaborationsChristian Behrends (University of Munich)Ivan Dikic (Goethe University)Jennifer Morton (CRUK Beatson Institute)Claus Jorgensen (CRUK Manchester Institute)Damian Mole (University of Edinburgh)Mark Arends (University of Edinburgh)Neil Carragher (University of Edinburgh)Juan Carlos Acosta (University of Edinburgh)Terje Johansen (University of Arctic, Tromso)Partners and FundersCancer Research UK / Senior Fellowship / 72 months / £2.1MCancer Research UK / Studentship / 36 monthsCancer Research UK / TRACC (pre-MBChB clinical) Studentship / 36 monthsScientific ThemesAutophagy, Cell death, Inflammation, Exocrine system, Ageing, CancerTechnology ExpertiseProtein-protein interaction, CRISPR/Cas9-genome editing, Super-resolution microscopy, Electron microscopy, Transgenic mouse models This article was published on 2024-09-23
