DNF seminar
Luca Scorrano is Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Biology, University of Padua (Italy). He completed his Medical Degree (1996) and his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathology (2000) at the University of Padua. From 2000 to 2003 he was HFSP (Human Frontier Science Program) postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), in the lab of the late Stanley J. Korsmeyer, a founding father of the field of apoptosis. In 2003 he was awarded an Assistant Scientist position at the Dulbecco-Telethon Institute, in 2006 he was recruited as Full Professor at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 2013 he moved to the University of Padova and since 2014 he serves as Scientific Director of the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine. Scorrano’s work has changed classical tenets in the field of apoptosis and mitochondrial pathophysiology and propelled the field of mitochondrial dynamics. During his postdoc, he discovered the process of mitochondrial cristae remodeling that allows complete cytochrome c release during cell death, and a new endoplasmic reticulum gateway of apoptosis controlled by Calcium. From 2003, his lab discovered the Opa1-dependent “molecular staple” holding cristae junctions tight and exploited it in vivo to correct mitochondrial diseases and blunt tissue damage; the first molecular bridge between endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria; how mitochondrial shape controls the outcome of autophagy; the link between cristae shape and mitochondrial respiration; the essential role of mitochondrial fusion in heart development. He received several Prizes and Awards (including the 2006 Eppendorf European Young Investigator, the 2011 Chiara D’Onofrio Award and the 2013 European Society for Clinical Investigation Award). He was elected EMBO Young Investigator in 2006 and EMBO Member in 2011. He sits on several Scientific Advisory Boards (e.g. Institut Necker Enfants Malades, Paris; FinMit Consortium, Helsinki), on reviewing panels of the ERC, the Flemish Science Foundation, the Finnish Academy of Sciences, and he chairs the EMBO Fellowship Committee. He is an Editorial Board member of EMBOJ, CDD, Cardiovasc Res, BBA-Mol Cell Res, Biol Open.