The CEF Macromolecular Complexes approved funding for the proposal of Masato Akutsu, Christian Behrends, Vladimir Rogov and Volker Dötsch on the spatio-temporal regulation of protein complexes by the family of human ATG8 proteins.

By employing highly complementary structural, biophysical, biochemical and cell biological approaches this young team of researchers seeks to understand the role of the ubiquitin-like ATG8 proteins as reversible, membrane-bound scaffolds that help organizing protein and protein complexes spatially to control cellular pathways other than autophagy.

The research program is supported with 300.000 Euro for two years starting June 2015.