Oocytes, female germ cells that become eggs, are formed before birth and survive in the female body up to 50 years in humans. To accomplish this remarkable feat of cellular longevity, and keep the potential to give rise to a new organism, oocytes must minimise damage to their cytoplasmic and nuclear components. Therefore, we hypothesised that they developed mechanisms to counteract or avoid the accumulation of intracellular damage.

We have discovered a new membraneless compartment in oocytes which are involved in establishing proteostasis. We named these ELVAs (EndoLysosomal Vesicular Assemblies). ELVAs are phase-separated compartments that are 2 to 15 microns in size and are composed of clustered membranous organelles, such as lysosomes, autophagasomes, multivesicular bodies and endosomes.

In this seminar, I will talk about the organisation and function of ELVAs, and touch briefly on another membraneless compartment we characterised earlier in dormant oocytes, the Balbiani body.

Talk by:
Elvan Böke
Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)

Start time in various timezones:
7:00 am PDT
9:00 am CDT
10:00 am EDT
2:00 pm UTC
3:00 pm BST
4:00 pm CEST

Note, this event has passed, but we’ve got you covered:
See the video here

Create an Account or Sign In to register for the talk.