Afroditi Petsakou

The paper identifies tumor-induced factors that reduce brain NPF signaling, leading to low protein appetite and early organ wasting in a fly model of cancer cachexia.

This study uses a Drosophila model to show that CFTR loss reduces cholinergic signaling, which contributes to gut pathologies, and that restoring cholinergic signaling can rescue these phenotypes.

The paper identifies a cholinergic pathway in Drosophila midgut regeneration that triggers Ca2+ waves to heal the epithelium and prevent chronic injury.