Project data

Funding entiy: Italian Ministry of University and Research

Call: PRIN 2017

Coordinator: UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA “TOR VERGATA”

UNISI Principal Investigator: Cosima Baldari

Department: Life sciences

Start date: 16 December 2019 – End date: 15 December 2023

 

Description

Autophagy is a cellular degradation process that ensures the removal of damaged or senescent macromolecules and organelles, which it converts to building blocks that are recycled for their renewal. Interestingly, a non-canonical role for autophagy beyond cell homeostasis has recently emerged for different cell types, including T cells. These cells exploit autophagy for their expansion and differentiation to either effector cells that orchestrate the immune-mediated elimination of invading pathogens or cancer cells, or memory cells for long-lasting protection. The overarching aim of this project, supported by the complementary and robust expertise of five labs in different areas of life and biomedical sciences, is to address the role of autophagy regulator AMBRA1 in different cells cell types and define the underlying mechanisms. My lab is characterizing the function of AMBRA1 in human cytotoxic T cells (CTL), which are specialized in killing virally infected or cancer cells, using a multidisciplinary approach encompassing molecular and cellular biology, immunology and biochemistry. As such, the project has the potential to identify a novel player in CTL differentiation, which has paramount implications to immune-related diseases, as well as to highlight a new non-canonical function of AMBRA1 which may have relevance to other cell types and related pathological dysfunctions beyond CTLs.

 

This project has received funding from Ministry of University and Research (MUR) – PRIN 2017