Molecular function of the WIPI proteins in Autophagy

Sharon Tooze

The Francis Crick Institute

Sharon Tooze is a Principal Group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and an Honorary Professor at University College London. Her work is core funded by the Francis Crick Institute, and by a ERC advanced grant. Sharon is an EMBO member (2010), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2018), Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (2020), and Member of Academia Europaea (2024). She has published over 200 papers in highly respected journals, with an h index of 88.

Over her career, Sharon has investigated how the cell creates two different unique cellular organelles using distinct mechanisms: neuroendocrine secretory granules and autophagosomes. In the former, during her post-doctoral work (1986-1990) she studied the de novo biogenesis of neuroendocrine secretory granules (SGs). This work was published in Cell (1990) and Nature (1990). In her second line of research, which continues today, she focuses on the biogenesis of autophagosomes which formed through the assembly of proteins and lipids. As an independent researcher from 1990, Sharon has identified essential ATG proteins (ULK1, JBC, 2007; ATG9A, JCS, 2006; WIPI2, Mol Cell 2012) and further critical molecular interactions (JCB, 2019; Mol Cell 2022) and regulation by post-translational modifications (EMBO 2021, EMBO Reports 2024) which are the foundation for a mechanistic framework for both cellular pathways. Through this work, she has delivered a greater understanding of how intracellular organelles are formed, and function, which will enable future exploitation of these pathways to benefit health and prevent disease. Critically, in both areas, Sharon developed new ideas, and pioneered new approaches to advance the existing largely descriptive cell biology into the molecular era of mechanistic discovery research. Her lab was established in the Francis Crick Institute upon its opening in 2015 where she continues her work.