The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Group leader Jon D. Lane, University of Bristol, UK
- Second opponent: Professor Eva Sjøttem, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Ragnhild Eskeland, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor Tor Erik Rusten, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Anne Simonsen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
Our cells depend on a dynamic relationship with the environment, by uptake of nutrients and other components via endocytosis and secretion of molecules through several secretory pathways. A tight regulation of the synthesis and turnover of different cellular components is also critical for cell health. Malfunctioning of any of these processes is often linked to disease, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
Degradation of cellular components happens in lysosomes, through a pathway named autophagy. During autophagy, cytoplasmic cargo is sequestered into autophagosomes, vesicles that are delivered to the lysosomes. The specific lipid composition of autophagosomes and their role in cargo selection and autophagosome biogenesis remain largely unknown.
In this thesis, Laura Trachsel-Moncho and co-workers have carried out two high content imaging-based siRNA-screens targeting proteins containing lipid-binding proteins in order to identify novel proteins with the ability to bind to membranes and modulate selective (mitochondria degradation) and non-selective autophagy (bulk autophagy upon starvation stimuli). Several positive and negative regulators of autophagy were identified. In her thesis, Trachsel-Moncho has characterized the roles of four lipid-binding proteins: The kinase activities of cyclin G associated kinase (GAK) and protein kinase C delta (PRKCD) were show to be required for mitochondria degradation (mitophagy) upon hypoxia and iron depletion. Sorting nexin 10 (SNX10), a protein implicated in osteopetrosis, was found to be involved in endocytosis and secretion. Lastly, SNX8, was found to be involved in regulation of starvation-induced autophagy.
These findings provide a deeper understanding of the machinery involved in regulation of autophagy and a mechanistic characterization of the selected proteins. Moreover, the results obtained shed light on how lipids and lipid-binding proteins regulate the interconnections between cellular compartments.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.