[HT-05] More than just taking out the garbage: Expanding landscape of autophagy and lysosome function in neurological diseases

[HT-05-1] Tunneling nanotubes allow the spreading of alpha-synuclein fibrils through lysosomal trafficking

Chiara Zurzolo (Unité Trafic Membranaire et Pathogenèse, Institut Pasteur, France)

Autophagy sequesters cytoplasmic material and organelles to lysosomes for degradation. The magnitude of autophagy depends on starvation, oxidative stress, or other noxious conditions, which thereby exerts quality control function that contributes to neurodegeneration and aging. The lysosome was once thought of as a waste bag, a dead-end destination where cellular debris was sent for disposal. However, recent studies have challenged this simple view and found that Lysosomes are not just a sack of digestive enzymes, but rather a signaling/sorting hub related to all of the materials used in the cell. In this symposium, we will invite four speakers with known expertise to share the recently discovered properties of the autophagy-lysosome system in neurological conditions and offer helpful hints on how to develop therapeutic strategies to combat these devastating diseases.

Chiara Zurzolo is the chair of the Department of Cell Biology & Infection at Institut Pasteur, in Paris. She is a cell biologist studying the mechanism of protein trafficking and their role in diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration. Her recent research focuses on tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), a novel mechanism of communication between cells. She demonstrated that prions (and other amyloid proteins involved in neurodegenerative disease) use TNTs to spread between cells, thus providing an explanation for the progression of incurable diseases in the brain. She is authors of more the 100 papers as first or senior authors and reviews.
Zurzolo is an MD and PhD. She received her doctorate from the University of Naples Federico II and then spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University Medical College, in New York. She then went back to Naples University Federico II School of Medicine and Surgery, where she established her own research group as an assistant and then associate professor. In 2003, she moved to Paris to the Pasteur Institute as director of research. In 2015, she was made a professor at Institut Pasteur and elected a member of EMBO.