Tibor Vellai - Curriculum Vitae#

Position: professor, head of department, Department of Genetics, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Hungary
Working place: Department of Genetics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Postdoctoral period: 1999-2003, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Major fields: Genetics, Cell and Developmental Biology
Research interest: aging, autophagy, cellular stress response, signalling crosstalk, sex-determination and dosage compensation, neuronal degeneration, Hox genes
Models: Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, zebrafish, cell lines

Major findings/achievements: 1) Uncovering the role of transposable elements in lifespan determination, and the function of N6-adenine methylation in the progressive mobilization of transposable elements during aging (the mechanism underlying aging). 2) Demonstrating the role of TOR (target-of-rapamycin) kinase in aging control (to date, TOR is the only protein whose aging function has been demonstrated in all major aging models). 3) Exploring the central role of autophagy in the regulation of aging (that is, distinct longevity pathways converge on the autophagic gene cascade to determine the rate at which cells age). 4) Analysing the mechanism and functions of autophagy in C. elegans and Drosophila. 5) Identifying direct targets (e.g. xol-1, daf-16 and goa-1) of TRA-1, the terminal effector of the C. elegans sex-deterination pathway (to understand the molecular basis of dosage compensation, as well as of sex differences in lifespan and behavior).

Translational activity: 1) Identifying autophagy-enhancing drug candidates. 2) Developing an in vitro enzymatic reaction-free DNA (auto)cloning method. 3) Developing a novel, highly effective RNA interference method for C. elegans genetics. 4) Accurate determination of age from DNA in individuals with unknown identity, lifespan prognosis in individuals with known identity, and determining DNA methylation levels of disease-related genes (technological basis of epigenetic DNA diagnostics).

International collaborators: Daniel J Klionsky (US), Nektarios Tavernarakis (Greece), Hilde Nilsen (Norway), Tamás Korcsmáros (UK)

PhD supervisor: 16 completed, 10 ongoing

Teaching: genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology, RNA interference

Publications: papers in peer-reviewed journals: 99 (papers in high standard journals, such as Nature, Nat Commun, Nat Struct Mol Biol, Nat Aging, Signal Transduct Target Ther, PNAS, Curr Biol, Nucleic Acids Res, Autophagy, Trends Cell Biol, Aging Cell, Cell Death Differ, Development and Genetics); book chapters : 2

Total number of citations: 18598 (Google Scholar)

Editorial Board Member: Autophagy, FEBS Open Biol, Zool Res, BMC Dev Biol, Scientifica, ISRN Entomology

Scientific Tasks: Leader of the program of genetics, Doctoral School of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE); Co-chair of the Molecular Biology, Genetics and Cell Biology Scientific Committee, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Secretary general of the Hungarian Society of Genetics; Chair of the professor council, Institute of Biology, ELTE