Recently, our lab found out Vito/Nol12, a nucleolar protein, is a novel Myc target functionally important in Drosophila melanogaster eye development. Furthermore we showed that vito knockdown induces nucleolar stress, cell growth deficit and apoptosis, in a p53-independent manner. My main current interest is to understand Nol12 function in human fibroblasts. To do that, I am knocking-down Nol12 and looking for alterations in nucleolar dynamics and functions. I aim to unravel the main pathways that are regulated by Nol12 and their contribution to the cellular alterations that we observed upon Nol12 depletion. In particular I am very interested in dissecting the mechanisms for the p53-dependent and p53-independent responses to Nol12 loss of function. This question is being addressed both in Drosophila and in human cells to take advantage of the strong points of each model system. Finally, I am interested in studying the hypothetic role of Nol12 in senescence and chronological aging.