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Address book

Contacts

LUCA SCORRANO

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Position

Professore Ordinario

Structure

Dipartimento di Biologia - DiBio

Address

VIA U. BASSI, 58/B - PADOVA

Telephone

0498276320

E-mail

luca.scorrano@unipd.it

The work of L. Scorrano addresses the central question of form-function relationship at the molecular level. During his career, he has changed classical tenets in the fields of apoptosis, mitochondrial pathophysiology, and medicine. His work on cristae remodeling paved the way for the new field of mitochondrial dynamics. In the following years, his lab discovered that Opa1 works as a molecular staple holding cristae junctions tight, deficient in dominant optic atrophy, targeted during apoptosis and essential in vivo to control tissue damage and to correct mitochondrial diseases, as well as a key factor in angiogenesis that can be pharmacologically targeted to curtail tumor growth; identified the first molecular bridge between ER and mitochondria (propelling the new field of interorganellar contact sites); showed that mitochondria change shape to control autophagy, or to produce progesterone during pregnancy; demonstrated that cristae shape dictates assembly of proteins and efficiency of respiration; discovered a novel pathway of Notch1 signaling controlled by mitochondrial fusion and Ca2+ essential during heart development; discovered that mitochondrial fusion mounts a metabolic defense against Toxoplasma. His papers are widely cited (192 indexed items, approx. 57,000 citations, h-index of 88 on Google Scholar; of his original research papers as main author, 9 are cited >1,000 times, 15 >300 times), leading to his inclusion in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list in 2021 and 2022. For his research, he received several international awards and was elected EMBO Member in 2012 and member of the Academia Europaea in 2019.

Notices

Office hours

at Stanza 18, Dip. di Biologia, VI piano Sud.
Si riceve previo appuntamento per email

Teachings

Publications

10 selected publications from the last 10 years
1. S. Cogliati, C. Frezza, M.E. Soriano, T. Varanita, R. Quintana Cabrera, M. Corrado, S. Cipolat, V. Costa, A. Casarin, L.C. Gomes, E. Perales-Clemente, L. Salviati, P. Fernandez-Silva, JA. Enriquez, L. Scorrano. Mitochondrial cristae shape determines respiratory chain supercomplexes assembly and respiratory efficiency. Cell 155:160-71 (2013).
2. A. Kasahara, S. Cipolat, Y. Chen, G.W. Dorn 2nd, L. Scorrano Mitochondrial Fusion Directs Cardiomyocyte Differentiation via Calcineurin and Notch Signaling. Science 342:734-7 (2013).
3. A Pyakurel, C. Savoia, D. Hess, L. Scorrano Extracellular regulated kinase phosphorylates Mitofusin 1 to control mitochondrial morphology and apoptosis. Molecular Cell 58:244-54 (2015).
4. T. Varanita, M.E. Soriano, V. Romanello, T. Zaglia, R. Quintana-Cabrera, M. Semenzato, R. Menabò, V. Costa, G. Civiletto, P. Pesce, C. Viscomi, M. Zeviani, F. Di Lisa, M. Mongillo, M. Sandri, L. Scorrano The Opa1-dependent mitochondrial cristae remodeling pathway controls atrophic, apoptotic and ischemic tissue damage Cell Metabolism 21:834-44 (2015).
5. D. Naon, M. Zaninello, M. Giacomello, T. Varanita, F. Grespi, S. Lakshminaranayan, A. Serafini, M. Semenzato, S. Herkenne, M.I. Hernández-Alvarez, A. Zorzano, D. De Stefani, G.W. Dorn 2nd, L. Scorrano. Critical reappraisal confirms that Mitofusin 2 is an endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria tether. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 113:11249-11254. (2016).
6. R Quintana-Cabrera, C Quirin, C Glytsou, M Corrado, A Urbani, A Pellattiero, E Calvo, J Vázquez, JA Enríquez, C Gerle, ME Soriano, P Bernardi, and L. Scorrano. The cristae modulator Optic atrophy 1 requires mitochondrial ATP synthase oligomers to safeguard mitochondrial function Nature Communications 24; 9:3399. (2018).
7. S. Herkenne, O. Ek, M. Zamberlan, A. Pellattiero, M. Chergova, I. Chivite, E. Novotná, G. Rigoni, T.B. Fonseca, D. Samardzic, A. Agnellini, C. Bean, G. Di Benedetto, N. Tiso, F. Argenton, A. Viola, M.E. Soriano, M. Giacomello, E. Ziviani, G. Sales, M. Claret, M. Graupera and L. Scorrano Developmental and tumor angiogenesis requires the mitochondria-shaping protein Opa1. Cell Metabolism. 31:987- 1003 (2020).
8. M. Zaninello, K. Palikaras, D. Naon, K. Iwata, S. Herkenne, R. Quintana-Cabrera, M. Semenzato, F. Grespi, F.N. Ross-Cisneros, V. Carelli, A.A. Sadun, N. Tavernarakis, L. Scorrano. Inhibition of autophagy curtails visual loss in a model of autosomal dominant optic atrophy. Nature Communications 11:4029 (2020).
9. C. Bean, M. Audano, T. Varanita, F. Favaretto, M. Medaglia, M. Gerdol, L. Pernas, F. Stasi, M. Giacomello, S. Herkenne, M. Muniandy, S. Heinonen, E. Cazaly, M. Ollikainen, G. Milan, A. Pallavicini, K.H. Pietiläinen, R. Vettor, N. Mitro, L. Scorrano The mitochondrial protein Opa1 promotes adipocyte browning that is dependent on urea cycle metabolites. Nature Metabolism 3:1633-1647 (2021).
10. D. Naón, M.I. Hernández-Alvarez, S. Shinjo, M. Wieczor, S. Ivanova, O.M. de Brito, A. Quintana, J. Hidalgo, M. Palacín, P. Aparicio, J. Castellanos, L. Lores, D. Sebastián, S. Fernández-Veledo, J. Vendrell, J. Joven, M. Orozco, A. Zorzano, L. Scorrano Splice variants of Mitofusin 2 shape the endoplasmic reticulum and tether it to mitochondria. Science in press (2023).