Klionsky Lab

The cells of higher organisms have an internal mechanism for chewing up and recycling parts of themselves, particularly in times of stress, like starvation and disease. This process of internal house-cleaning in the cell is called autophagy---literally self-eating---and it is now considered the second form of programmed cell death (PCD). Autophagy, self-eating at the cellular level, is implicated in many aspects of human physiology and disease. The process involves the formation of a double-membrane vesicle (shown in blue) that sequesters cytosol and organelles (red oblong). Upon completion the resulting autophagosome fuses with the lysosome (green sphere) allowing the cargo to be broken down. The products are recycled to maintain essential cellular processes.