WEHI Parkinson’s Disease Special Seminar hosted by Professor Grant Dewson

Professor Elena Ziviani

Biology Department, University of Padova, Italy

Mitochondrial quality control in neurodegenerative diseases, and molecular mechanisms of protection

In person attendance preferred

L7W Seminar Room

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Elena obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester, UK, under the supervision of Professor Pierluigi Nicotera. In 2007 she moved to Sheffield (UK) at the MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics in the lab of Dr Alex Whitworth, where she learned fly genetics and the power of flies to model human diseases. She was awarded EMBO long-term fellowships and Marie Curie IEF to continue her studies on mitophagy-related proteins PINK1 and Parkin in mitochondrial quality control in the lab of Professor Luca Scorrano at the Faculté de médecine de Genève, University of Geneva (Switzerland).

Since 2015 she has been an independent lab head investigating defective proteostasis (mitophagy in particular) in neurodegenerative conditions, and approaches to normalize it. To this aim, her group identified the deubiquitination enzymes (DUBs) USP14, USP8 and UCH-L1 that counteract specific Ubiquitin-ligases activity on their mitochondrial targets, thereby promoting mitochondrial ubiquitination and mitophagy. Her group showed that inhibition of these DUBs is protective in in vivo models of neurodegeneration.

In parallel, her group focuses on the mechanism and consequences of Parkin recruitment to mitochondria, and recently discovered that the Ca2+-dependent phosphatase Calcineurin is required for Parkin translocation to mitochondria and mitophagy (Marchesan E. et al., Cell Death and Differentiation, 2024). The group furthermore characterized that Parkin-dependent ubiquitination of Mitofusin (Mfn) on a specific Mfn2 site, modulates ER-mitochondria tethering, a functional and physical interaction that regulates key physiological processes, including mitophagy (Basso V. et al., Pharmacol Res., 2018).

When not busy at work, Elena loves mountaineering in the Dolomites and sailing.

All welcome!