Rosario Rizzuto MD, PhD

Rosario Rizzuto, MD Ph.D., is a Professor of General Pathology. He was Director of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and a member of the University Senate of the University of Padua (Italy). He became Lecturer in Padua in 1992, then Professor in Ferrara in 1998 (where he was Director of the Emilia Romagna Genetics and Biotechnology network, Dean of the Pharmacy School, and member of the University Senate). In 2008, he returned to the University of Padua, as a Professor of the Medical Faculty.

His research interests have been centered on the study of cellular signaling, with a special focus on intracellular calcium homeostasis. He developed an innovative methodology, organelle targeting of recombinant luminescent (aequorin, luciferase) and fluorescent (GFP) proteins, that allowed novel insight into the fields of calcium signaling, cellular metabolism, and organelle morphology. New concepts were acquired, which include the participation of mitochondria in cellular Ca2+ homeostasis and their role in translating calcium signals in effects as diverse as stimulation of metabolism and induction of cell death, the occurrence of tight signaling interactions between the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, the identification of the Golgi apparatus as an agonist-sensitive Ca2+ store, and the major Ca2+ rises occurring under the plasma membrane upon cell stimulation, to cite a few.

In 2011, Prof. Rizzuto identified the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU), the only fundamental component of the cellular calcium signaling machinery yet to be discovered. This result has opened the molecular era of mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis, which combines molecular insight into the structure/function relationship of MCU and its regulators and the possibility of manipulating mitochondrial Ca2+ handling in cultured cells and animal models, with the goal of clarifying its role in the physiological regulation of tissues and in the pathogenesis of the most prevalent human diseases.