Brown University researchers studying the biology of aging demonstrated a new strategy for stimulating autophagy - the process by which cells rebuild themselves by recycling their own worn-out parts. The process of autophagy involves rounding up misfolded proteins and obsolete organelles within a cell into vesicles called autophagosomes. The autophagosomes then fuse with a lysosome, which breaks down the cellular macromolecules and converts them into components the cell can re-use. Louis Lapierre, an assistant professor of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry at Brown, and his colleagues wanted to see if they could increase autophagy by manipulating a transcription factor that regulates autophagic activity. In order for the transcription
