Autophagy 101

Out with the old, in with the new”; it’s a phrase we’ve heard our whole lives, whether it’s talking about a new wardrobe, significant other, or even the promise of a brand new year. While this phrase might seem like an idealistic vision looking to the future, there is a lot more science behind it than one might initially think. The biological process of autophagy, from the greek meaning “self-eating”, is a cellular clean up process that has huge ripple effects throughout overall health when either up or down-regulated. The study of autophagy, while it may still be burgeoning onto the headlines of the average american, is one we have understood as being of utmost importance to not only longevity research, but the understanding of our biology as a whole, so much so that there have been two separate nobel prizes awarded to the study behind autophagy.