Francesco Cecconi
Discovered AMBRA1, a regulator of autophagy, and showed how mTOR restrains autophagy by acting on AMBRA1 and ULK1.
Full Professor, University of Rome Tor Vergata (since 2006) · Leads Cell Stress and Survival group, Danish Cancer Institute (since 2013) · Deputy Director, CARD, Copenhagen
Portrait: ScienceNews.dk
Francesco Cecconi is a full professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and, since 2013, leads the Cell Stress and Survival group at the Danish Cancer Institute in Copenhagen. His group studies autophagy, the cell's recycling process, in development and in disease, especially tumours. He is known for discovering AMBRA1, an autophagy regulator, and earlier for identifying the developmental role of Apaf1 in apoptosis.
The 2013 Nature Cell Biology paper in the Atlas, with Cecconi as last author, asked how mTOR switches autophagy off. The team showed that when nutrients are plentiful, mTOR phosphorylates AMBRA1. When mTOR is inhibited, AMBRA1 loses that phosphate and works with the ubiquitin ligase TRAF6 to attach K63-linked ubiquitin chains to ULK1.
That modification stabilises ULK1 and helps it assemble, so autophagy can start. The paper is often cited for showing a direct link between mTOR and the machinery that begins autophagosome formation.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | M | mTOR inhibits autophagy by controlling ULK1 ubiquitylation, self-association and function through AMBRA1 and TRAF6 NAZ2013 Last author of the study showing that mTOR inhibits AMBRA1 by phosphorylation, and that without mTOR activity AMBRA1 and TRAF6 ubiquitylate and activate ULK1 to start autophagy. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Francesco Cecconi.
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- Francesca Nazio Cell biologist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata who, in Francesco Cecconi's lab, showed how mTOR keeps autophagy switched off by acting on AMBRA1 and the starter kinase ULK1
- Jörn Dengjel Mass-spectrometry proteomics specialist in autophagy and protein homeostasis; co-author on the TBK1/ULK1–TFEB lysosomal stress pathway and on the spermidine lifespan and cardioprotection study.
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