Tassula Proikas-Cezanne

Human WIPI β-propellers in autophagy, health and disease

University of Tübingen
Faculty in: IMPRS

Vita

PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) 1995 from the University of Hamburg (external thesis at the MPI for Plant Breeding, Cologne)
Postdoctoral scientist at the Marie Curie Research Institute, Oxted, UK and Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Scientific consultant at Onconova Therapeutics, Princeton, NJ, USA
Since 2004 group leader at the Interfaculty Institute for Cell Biology, University of Tübingen
Since 2012 apl. Professor for Molecular Biology and Cell Biology at the Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

Research Interest
We aim to contribute to the molecular understanding of autophagy in health and disease. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation pathway that secures cellular homeostasis and that also contributes to a variety of age-related human diseases. Earlier we identified the human WIPI genes, that function as essential phospholipid effectors during the process of autophagy. Our recent findings revealed that human WIPI proteins act as scaffolds interconnecting energy- and nutrient-dependent signal control of autophagy.
Our current aims are to identify signaling networks that regulate WIPI proteins, and to identify synthetic and natural compounds that can modulate autophagy in pathophysiological circumstances such as cancer.

Microscopic image of an autophagosome with inner and outer membranes. — Figure 1. WIPI-1 is a membrane protein of both the outer (OM) and inner membrane (IM) of autophagosomes (AP). Taken from: Proikas-Cezanne T & Robenek H (2011). Freeze-fracture replica immunolabelling reveals human WIPI-1 and WIPI-2 as membrane proteins of autophagosomes. J Cell Mol Med. 15(9): 2007-2010.

Figure 1. WIPI-1 is a membrane protein of both the outer (OM) and inner membrane (IM) of autophagosomes (AP).
Taken from: Proikas-Cezanne T & Robenek H (2011). Freeze-fracture replica immunolabelling reveals human WIPI-1 and WIPI-2 as membrane proteins of autophagosomes. J Cell Mol Med. 15(9): 2007-2010.

Available PhD Projects

Currently not recruiting PhD students via the IMPRS.

Selected Reading

Bakula D, Müller AJ, Zuleger T, Takacs Z, Franz-Wachtel M, Thost AK, Brigger D, Tschan MP, Frickey T, Robenek H, Macek B, Proikas-Cezanne T (2017). WIPI3 and WIPI4 β-propellers are scaffolds for LKB1-AMPK-TSC signalling circuits in the control of autophagy. Nat Commun. 8:15637.
Proikas-Cezanne T, Takacs Z, Dönnes P, Kohlbacher O (2015). WIPI proteins: essential PtdIns3P effectors at the nascent autophagosome. J Cell Sci. 128(2):207-17. Review.
Proikas-Cezanne T et al. (2004). WIPI-1alpha (WIPI49), a member of the novel 7-bladed WIPI protein family, is aberrantly expressed in human cancer and is linked to starvation-induced autophagy. Oncogene 23(58):9314-9325.