I lead the Fanto lab, which focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable correct functioning of the adult nervous system. When these mechanisms fail it leads to neurodegeneration, which underlies a number of age-related human disorders such as Fronto-Temporal Dementia, Motor Neurone Disease, Huntington’s Disease and Ataxias. We concentrate our efforts on the understanding of neuronal cell death via autophagy dysfunctions and of glial support, and integrate multiple model organisms to research cell biology of the nervous system in vivo, specifically using Drosophilia and mouse models.

Please see my  Research Staff Profile for more detail.

Key Publications:

• Mazaud et al., 2019. Transcriptional regulation of the Glutamate/GABA/Glutamine cycle in adult glia controls motor activity and seizures in Drosophila. The Journal of neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.
• Baron et al., 2017. Stall in Canonical Autophagy-Lysosome Pathways Prompts Nucleophagy-Based Nuclear Breakdown in Neurodegeneration. Current Biology.
• Byrne et al., 2016. EPG5-related Vici syndrome: A paradigm of neurodevelopmental disorders with defective autophagy. Brain.
• Joffre et al., 2015. The pro-apoptotic STK38 kinase is a new Beclin1 partner positively regulating autophagy. Current Biology.
• Napoletano et a. 2011. Polyglutamine Atrophin provokes neurodegeneration by repressing fat. The EMBO Journal.

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Key Collaborators:

• Professor Heinz Jungbluth, King's College London
• Dr Sarah Mizielinska, King's College London
• Dr Giovanni Stevanin, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière
• Professor Michela Mattteoli, CNR Institute of Neuroscience and Humanitas University