Congratulations to Juliane da Graça, former PhD student in the Membramics Lab, and co-authors on their new study published in Cell Reports.

The paper sheds light on how interactions between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and endosomes contribute to the early stages of autophagy. The authors show that during nutrient stress, these organelle contact sites form specialized environments that support the initiation of phagophore formation, the first step in autophagosome biogenesis.

Key findings:

• Rab5 and Rab11 endosomes tether sequentially to ER exit sites
• These contacts are associated with local calcium signaling and liquid-liquide phase separation
• Rab3a/RAB3GAPs are required for initiating membrane fusion events

offers new insight into how organelle coordination and nano-environmental dynamics regulate autophagy initiation.

Read the full article: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00764-8#fig1