Vojo Deretic
Studies how autophagy shapes infection, immunity and inflammation, including early work showing that autophagy restricts Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and how galectins and TRIM proteins control mTOR and AMPK.
Distinguished Professor, Chair of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology & Director of the AIM Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Portrait: University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Vojo Deretic is a cell biologist and microbiologist at the University of New Mexico, where he chairs the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and directs the Autophagy, Inflammation and Metabolism (AIM) Center. Autophagy is the cell's recycling system, in which parts of the cell are wrapped up and broken down in the lysosome. His group is known for showing that this system can also destroy invading bacteria such as the tuberculosis germ, and for studying how it is switched on and off.
KOR2011 is a Nature Cell Biology study from David Rubinsztein's group in Cambridge, with Deretic as one of the later authors. It found that where lysosomes sit inside the cell helps decide whether mTORC1 is on. When nutrients are plentiful, lysosomes move toward the cell edge and mTORC1 is active; when they are clustered near the centre, mTORC1 is weaker and autophagy rises.
Later work from his own group linked galectins, sugar-binding proteins that sense damaged lysosomes, to the control of mTOR and AMPK. His awards listed on the University page include an NIH MERIT Award (2018) and UNM's Annual Research Lecturer title (2022).
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | M | Lysosomal positioning coordinates cellular nutrient responses KOR2011 Co-author (later position) of a study showing that lysosome positioning inside the cell helps set mTORC1 activity and autophagy. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 4
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Vojo Deretic.
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- Cahir O'Kane Fruit-fly geneticist at Cambridge who studies how the endoplasmic reticulum is built inside nerve fibres and how its failure causes hereditary spastic paraplegia, and who helped bring Drosophila models into David Rubinsztein's autophagy work
- David C. Rubinsztein Showed that rapamycin induces autophagy to clear the toxic protein of Huntington's disease, and that where lysosomes sit inside a cell helps set mTORC1 activity
- Fiona Menzies Cell biologist who worked for many years in David Rubinsztein's Cambridge lab on autophagy and the clearance of disease proteins in neurodegeneration
- Viktor I. Korolchuk Showed that where lysosomes sit inside the cell tunes mTORC1 activity to nutrient supply. His Newcastle lab found that senescent cells can no longer switch mTORC1 off when nutrients or growth factors are withdrawn, and studies how autophagy and mitophagy decline with age
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On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Vojo Deretic is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- upcoming Keystone Symposia: Autophagy in Health and Disease – From Mechanisms to Therapeutics 2027 ↗ 8–11 Feb 2027 ·
Banff, AB, Canada · ★★ Add to calendar:
Google ·
Apple / Outlook - past International Autophagy Conference 2026 (Norwegian, German & UK Networks) ↗ 25–27 May 2026 ·
Oslo, Norway · ★★
All meetings in the calendar →
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