Nektarios Tavernarakis
Geneticist who uses the roundworm C. elegans to study how ageing, neurodegeneration, necrotic cell death, autophagy and protein turnover are controlled
Professor of Molecular Systems Biology, Medical School, University of Crete · Research Director, IMBB-FORTH; heads the Neurogenetics and Ageing laboratory · Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2019)
Portrait: Tavernarakis Lab, FORTH / University of Crete
Nektarios Tavernarakis works in Heraklion on Crete, where his laboratory uses the tiny transparent roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans to ask why cells and animals age and why neurons die. Worms live only a few weeks and their genes are easy to switch off, so a lifespan experiment that would take years in mice takes days. His interests include autophagy (the cell's recycling system), necrotic cell death, mitochondria and lysosomes.
The Atlas study is the 2009 spermidine paper led by Tobias Eisenberg and Frank Madeo in Graz. Spermidine is a natural molecule found in foods such as wheat germ and soy that tends to fall with age. The paper reported that adding it lengthened lifespan in yeast, flies, worms and human immune cells, and that the effect required autophagy. Tavernarakis is one of the authors of this multi-laboratory work, which opened the 'caloric restriction mimetic' idea to a wide audience.
He is a Professor at the University of Crete Medical School and a Research Director at the research institute FORTH, and was elected to the German academy Leopoldina in 2019.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | Induction of autophagy by spermidine promotes longevity EIS2009 One of the co-authors of the Nature Cell Biology spermidine paper, which showed lifespan extension in yeast, flies, worms and human cells through autophagy; the work with worms is the kind of ageing genetics his laboratory does. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 8
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Nektarios Tavernarakis.
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- Didac Carmona-Gutierrez Studies how cell death and autophagy shape ageing at the University of Graz, and contributed to the studies showing that spermidine extends lifespan through autophagy
- Frank Madeo Established spermidine as a dietary compound that extends lifespan in yeast, worms, flies and mice, and showed that the effect depends on autophagy
- Guido Kroemer Cell biologist known for work on programmed cell death, mitochondria and autophagy, and for linking autophagy to ageing and cancer immunity.
- Christoph Magnes Analytical chemist at Joanneum Research whose group contributed the mass-spectrometry measurements of polyamines in the Graz spermidine studies
- Christoph Ruckenstuhl Yeast geneticist who works out how amino-acid restriction and vacuole acidity set lifespan
- Sabrina Büttner Studies how organelles communicate inside cells and how that communication breaks down with age, and contributed to the Graz studies showing that spermidine extends lifespan by inducing autophagy
- Sabrina Schroeder Researcher in Frank Madeo's group at Graz who has contributed to the spermidine studies from the first yeast longevity experiments to work in mice
- Tobias Eisenberg Showed as first author that the dietary polyamine spermidine extends lifespan by inducing autophagy, and later that it protects the heart in an autophagy-dependent way
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On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Nektarios Tavernarakis is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- upcoming SEFAGIA Meeting 2027 ↗ 3–5 Feb 2027 ·
Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain · ★★ Add to calendar:
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