Autophagy is a complex multi-step cellular process where bulk materials are engulfed, cordoned-off, degraded into subunit components and recycled. In brief, cytoplasmic material is taken up and processed by autophagosomes or specialized lysosomes through specialized mechanisms.

Autophagy is integral to a number of basic cellular mechanisms, including microbial elimination, cell death, starvation adaptation, cell survival, tumor cell protection or elimination, and antigen presentation. This wide spectrum encompasses various research areas including Apoptosis, Immunology, and Cancer.

However, signaling pathways and molecules essential to Autophagy remain to be fully elucidated. Nevertheless, it is increasingly being recognized that Autophagy plays important, albeit undefined, roles in both health and disease. Autophagy is now among the most rapidly growing and intriguing research areas of the 21st century (reviewed in Green et al, 2009, Noda et al, 2009, and Todde et al, 2009). As a leader in Immune Signaling and Cell Death Pathways, IMGENEX provides technical expertise along with an expanding portfolio of Autophagy associated products

Green, DR, T Ferguson, L Zitvogel, G Kroemer. Immunogeneic and tolerogenic cell death. Nat.Rev. Immunol. 9, 353-363 (2009).

Noda T, N Fujita, T Yoshimori. The late stages of autophagy: how does the end begin? Cell Death Differentiation 16:984-990 (2009).

Todde V, M Veenhuis, IJ van der Klei. Autophagy: Principles and significance in health and disease. BBA: Molecular Basis of Disease. 1792:3-13 (2009).