Sharon A. Tooze
Cell biologist who studies how autophagosomes are built in mammalian cells; her lab has identified several mammalian Atg proteins and helped show that ULK1 is needed for starvation-induced autophagy.
Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute · group leader at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund / Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (from 1994) · postdoc and staff scientist, EMBL Heidelberg · PhD, EMBL (1986) · EMBO member (2010), FMedSci (2018)
Sharon Tooze was senior author of the 2007 Journal of Biological Chemistry study (CHA2007), in which her lab screened human kinases by siRNA and found that ULK1, but not ULK2, was needed for autophagy after amino-acid starvation or rapamycin treatment. The study placed ULK1 downstream of mTOR in human cells, using rapamycin rather than direct measurement of mTORC1 acting on ULK1.
Tooze took her PhD at EMBL in Heidelberg, stayed there as a postdoc and staff scientist, and set up her own lab in London in 1994 at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, which later became the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and then part of the Francis Crick Institute. Her early work was on the secretory pathway; from 2006 she turned to autophagy and autophagosome formation.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | M | siRNA screening of the kinome identifies ULK1 as a multidomain modulator of autophagy CHA2007 Senior author: kinome siRNA screen identifies ULK1 as required for starvation-induced autophagy in human cells. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Sharon A. Tooze.
- Edmond Y. W. Chan Studies how nutrient-sensing kinases, including ULK1, mTORC1 and AMPK, control autophagy and mitochondrial stress responses; in Sharon Tooze's lab he helped identify ULK1 as a kinase needed for starvation-induced autophagy in human cells.
Every researcher with a profile →
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Sharon A. Tooze is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- past Keystone: Autophagy – Mechanisms to Therapy 2026 ↗ 2–5 Feb 2026 · Keystone, Colorado, USA · ★★
All meetings in the calendar →
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