Q: What attracted you to the field of autophagy?
I got interested in the field of autophagy more than 20 years ago by following my scientific results - I had recently cloned the FYVE-domain containing protein ALFY, which turned out to co-localize with the autophagic markers LC3B and ATG5.
Q: What do you consider to be the most exciting recent discovery in autophagy?
This is a tough question as there are so many recent exciting discoveries. Without mentioning one specific paper, I think it is very exciting that we now, after more than 50 years, are starting to understand better how the phagophore membrane is formed in general and specifically how specific cargo is recognized and targeted for lysosomal degradation.
Q: What is the career achievement you are most proud of?
I’m most proud of being able to establish a scientific environment where members of my group can do good research and get the opportunity to develop into independent scientists.
Q: What advice would you give to young women in science?
A general advice would be to believe in yourself and support other women. We should all be learn from «Pippi Longstocking», having an attitude of «I have never done this before, so I’m sure I can do it.»
About Anne: born in Norway, she is the mother of two children. Currently, she holds the position of Co-director at the Centre of Cancer Cell Reprogramming (CoE) and is the Principal Investigator (PI) at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology within the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) at Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Norway. In addition, Anne is also Professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine within the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IMB) at the University of Oslo (UiO), Norway.
Among her academic achievements, Anne got her PhD from the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Oslo (UiO), Norway. Before, she completed her Master of Science (MSc) degree at the same department at UiO. After her PhD, Anne worked as Postdoctoral researcher at the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, USA.