Autophagy in health and disease

In our lab in Sabanci University, Istanbul, we focus on signaling events regulating mammalian autophagy in health and disease. To discover new autophagy regulators and coordinators, we performed several unbiased functional screens. Our microRNA (miRNA) screens led to the discovery of several miRNAs targeting autophagy at various steps of the pathway. miRNAs are able to affect the expression of a number of proteins at once. Therefore, miRNA networks seem to integrate cellular stress response pathways including autophagy and apoptosis, and coordinate them to shape cell faith. Our published and unpublished results allowed us to have a better picture of the miRNA networks modulating autophagic responses in human health and disease. Protein interaction screens performed in our lab led us to discover novel proteins involved in autophagy regulation. In fact, some of these proteins were directly interacting with the core autophagy machinery components. Unexpected direct links between autophagy and other important cellular pathways were found, allowing us to reveal novel entry points for autophagy regulation and coordination in cells. Interestingly, some of this interactions seemed to be autophagy signal specific, and our work revealed novel dynamics in autophagy regulation. Results from our recently published and unpublished studies will be presented and physiological and pathological implications of our results will be discussed.*This work was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) 1001 Grant number: 114Z982 and Sabanci University