This textbook describes the autophagy pathway with all its key molecular mechanisms and its physiological functions from yeast to eukaryotes in a didactic and reader-friendly manner.

It provides the most critical aspects that need to be understood to foster research and clinical translation in this area. Autophagy activity, mechanism and control in the context of cellular fate are central to this book, underpinned by human pathologies of priority. Further, key chapters describing major techniques required to assess autophagy activity, and highlighting starting points for the research of potential drug candidates and clinical translation, offer detailed insight into practice and application.

The work represents a comprehensive study guide that allows undergraduate and postgraduate students in biology and biomedicine to rapidly engage with the most critical and recent aspects of autophagy in health and its control of disease. Written in a style that may be favourable for its use in the classroom, this book can also serve as a valuable source for teaching in the biomedical and medical sciences.

Autorentext

Ben Loos, Ph.D., is Professor in Physiological Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Over the last 15 years his work has sought to better understand the role of autophagy activity, i.e. autophagic flux, in cell death onset in neurodegenerative disease and gliomas, to better quantify and control autophagy function, so as to govern cell death decision making. He focuses on the utilization of various microscopy techniques, to allow single cell and tissue analysis with high localization precision and quantitative power across scale and modality.

Daniel Klionsky, PhD, is a Research Professor and Alexander G. Ruthven Professor in the Life Sciences and the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, USA. In 2003, he received the National Science Foundation Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, in 2009, was elected a Fellow of the AAAS, was named a Thompson Reuters Citation Laureate in 2013, was awarded the University of Utrecht van Deenen Medal in 2015 and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. Dr. Klionsky's lab studies the mechanism and regulation of autophagy in yeast.