Christina Towers

Publications
Biography

Select Publications

- Cancer Cells Upregulate NRF2 Signaling to Adapt to Autophagy Inhibition. Towers CG, Fitzwalter BE, Regan D, Goodspeed A, Morgan MJ, Liu CW, Gustafson DL, Thorburn A. Dev Cell. 2019 Sep 23;50(6):690-703.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2019.07.010. Epub 2019 Aug 1. PMID: 31378590.
- Autophagy-dependent cancer cells circumvent loss of the upstream regulator RB1CC1/FIP200 and loss of LC3 conjugation by similar mechanisms. Towers CG, Wodetzki D, Thorburn A. Autophagy. 2020 Jul;16(7):1332-1340. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2020.1741204. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PMID: 32160093
- Autophagy and cancer: Modulation of cell death pathways and cancer cell adaptations. Towers CG, Wodetzki D, Thorburn A. J Cell Biol. 2020 Jan 6;219(1):e201909033. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201909033. PMID: 31753861. Review.
- Targeting autophagy in cancer. Levy JMM, Towers CG, Thorburn A. Nat Rev Cancer. 2017 Sep;17(9):528-542. doi: 10.1038/nrc.2017.53. Epub 2017 Jul 28. PMID: 28751651. Review.
- Towers CG#, Wodetzki DK, Thorburn J, Smith KR, Caino MC, Thorburn A. Mitochondrial-derived vesicles compensate for loss of LC3-mediated mitophagy. Dev Cell. 2021 Jun 24;. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.06.003. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 34171288. #Corresponding Author

Highlighted in:

Laura Poillet-Perez, Eileen White. MDVs to the rescue: How autophagy-deficient cancer cells adapt to defective mitophagy. Dev Cell. 2021 Aug 56;14: 2010-2012, ISSN 1534-5807, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1534580721005293?via%3Dihub
Annalisa M. Vanhook. An alternative to mitophagy. Science Signaling. 2021 Aug 14:695 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.abl7652 https://stke.sciencemag.org/content/14/695/eabl7652
Christina G. Towers (2021) Mitochondrial homeostasis is maintained in the absence of autophagy, Molecular & Cellular Oncology, DOI: 10.1080/23723556.2021.1984162 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23723556.2021.1984162?src=&journalCode=kmco20

Biography

Christina Towers is an Assistant Professor at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in San Diego, California. She completed both her PhD and Post-Doctoral studies at The University of Colorado. Her work uncovered novel mechanisms that cancer cells can use to adapt to and circumvent the metabolic recycling process, autophagy. She launched her lab at the Salk in 2021 and was recently named a Pew-Stewart Scholar and was also awarded the Chan Zuckerberg Diversity Leadership Award. Her new group is excited to dive deeper into cancer cell metabolism and autophagy using optogenetics, single cell tracing, and high-resolution microscopy.