Vincenzo Sorrentino

Assistant Professor
Vincenzo Sorrentino

Affiliations

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Healthy Longevity Translational Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS

Biodata

Vincenzo Sorrentino is an Italian-born scientist in the fields of aging, mitochondrial biology and neuromuscular degeneration. He obtained his PhD Cum Laude at the University of Amsterdam, in the lab of Prof. Noam Zelcer, on LDL-cholesterol regulation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system, with publications including in European Heart Journal and Circulation Research. Subsequently, he moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, for his postdoctoral research in Prof. Johan Auwerx’s lab at the EPFL. His work there focused on the understanding of mitochondria and NAD+ metabolism in neurodegeneration and muscle aging, with his research discoveries on Alzheimer’s disease and muscle aging published in Nature (2017) and Cell Reports (2021). He then obtained a position as Group Leader at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences in Lausanne, to lead research focused on integrating basic discoveries on nutraceuticals and their effects on mitochondria and protein homeostasis with their translation into novel clinical applications. Since December 2022, he is an Assistant Professor at the NUS with the Dept. of Biochemistry and the Healthy Longevity TRP, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, to continue to develop his research on how metabolism, nutrition and proteostasis are linked and impact on health and aging.

Education

Degree and Institution Year(s)
PhD cum Laude in Medical Biochemistry, University of Amsterdam 2010 – 2014

Professional Experience

Position and Institute Year(s)
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Healthy Longevity TRP, YLLSoM, NUS Dec 2022 – Present
Group Leader, Nestle’ Institute of Health Sciences, Switzerland 2019 – 2022
Postdoctoral Fellow, Auwerx Lab, EPFL, Switzerland 2015 – 2018

Research Interest

Biology of aging with a focus on the interconnection between mitochondrial homeostasis and proteostasis.

Current Research Projects

The projects explore the interconnectivity and possible therapeutic targeting of the cellular hallmarks of the aging process, with a particular focus on mitochondrial dysfunction, protein aggregation and alterations of NAD+ metabolism. Dr. Vincenzo Sorrentino’s recent work was pivotal in establishing a functional and druggable interdependence between mitochondrial stress response pathways, NAD+ boosting and amyloid aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease (Nature, 2017 DOI: 10.1038/nature25143) and muscle aging (Cell Reports 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108660). Several projects are currently open in the Sorrentino’s laboratory:

  1. Characterization of a novel NAD+ precursor for muscle and brain health in aging
  2. Dissecting cellular pathways of aging- and senescence-associated amyloidosis
  3. Elucidation of common proteotoxic stress response signatures across aging and age-related diseases

 

PI’s laboratory focuses on:

  1. Biology of aging
  2. Proteostasis
  3. Mitochondria and NAD+ metabolism
  4. Preclinical models of neuromuscular disease (e.g. C. elegans, cell lines, rodents)

 

Selected Publications

# correspondence; * equal contribution

  1. Membrez M, Migliavacca E, Christen S, Trieu J, Lee AK, Giner MP, Morandini F, Makarov MV, Garratt ES, Canto C, Karagounis L, Migaud ME, Karnani N, Tay SKH, Lillycrop KA, Godfrey KM, Moco S, Koopman R, Lynch GS, Sorrentino V#, Feige JN# Trigonelline is a Novel NAD+ Precursor Reduced in Human Sarcopenia which Improves Muscle function during Aging. Nature Metabolism, in revision (2023)
  2. Burtscher J#, Romani M, Bernardo G, Traian P, Ziviani E, Hummel F, Millet G, Sorrentino V#. Boosting mitochondrial resilience to counteract neurodegeneration. Progress in Neurobiology, 2022; doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102289
  3. Romani M*, Sorrentino V*, Chamgyung O, Li H, Zhang H, Shong M, Auwerx J. NAD+ boosting reduces age-associated amyloidosis and restores mitochondrial homeostasis in muscle. Cell Reports, 2021; 34(3):108660. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108660
  4. Sorrentino V, Romani M, Mouchiroud L, Beck JS, Zhang H, D’Amico D, Moullan N, Potenza F, Schmid AW, Rietsch S, Counts SE, Auwerx J. Enhancing mitochondrial proteostasis reduces amyloid-β proteotoxicity. Nature 2017; 552(7684):187-193. doi: 10.1038/nature25143.
  5. Sorrentino V*, Nelson J*, Avagliano Trezza R, Heride C, Urbè S, Distel B, Zelcer N. USP2 positively regulates the LDLR pathway through deubiquitylation of the E3-ubiquitin ligase IDOL. Circulation Research. 2015 doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.115.30729
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