Harald Stenmark with ESCRT review in Nature
In the 25 June issue of Nature, Harald Stenmark at Institute for Cancer Research and colleagues in Berkeley, Baltimore and Warsaw publish a review article on “The expanding repertoire of ESCRT functions in cell biology and disease”.
The review discusses the functions of ESCRT proteins in diverse cellular functions and highlights the associations between ESCRT dysfunctions in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery is a set of evolutionarily conserved protein complexes that promote the invagination and scission of cellular membranes. Since 2001, Stenmark´s group has contributed strongly to our understanding of how ESCRT proteins control cellular membrane dynamics processes such as endocytic downregulation of growth factor receptors and integrin molecules, nuclear and micronuclear envelope dynamics, autophagy, and repair of damaged lysosomes. Together with structural biologist James Hurley, UC Berkeley, neurobiologist Alyssa Coyne, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and cancer cell biologist Marta Miaczynska, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Stenmark has reviewed these and other cellular processes controlled by ESCRT proteins, discussed their links to cancer and other diseases, and proposed new directions for how ESCRT dysfunctions can be targeted therapeutically.
Links:
The Nature review article, published 25 June 2025:
The expanding repertoire of ESCRT functions in cell biology and disease
James H. Hurley, Alyssa N. Coyne, Marta Miączyńska & Harald Stenmark
Nature (2025)
The Cellular membrane dynamics research group, led by Harald Stenmark
The Department of Molecular Cell Biology