FUTURE Seminar by Devrim Gözüaçık

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016: Autophagy Research

Devrim Gözüaçık, MD PhD

Faculty of Engineering and Biological Sciences, Molecular Biology, Genetics and Bioengineering Program and EFSUN Nanodiagnostics Center of Excellence, Sabanci University. 

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Prof. Yoshinori Ohsumi. His pioneering work allowed the discovery and elucidation of mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components. Autophagy is functional in all eukaryotic organisms from baker's yeast to man and it is activated under various cellular stress conditions, including starvation, toxin exposure and mutant protein accumulation. Therefore, a functional autophagy system is essential for the preservation of cellular and organismal health. As a consequence, abnormalities of autophagy are linked to various diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, metabolic disorders, various inherited diseases and syndromes etc.

In this talk, following a summary of the history of the field, I will explain the basic mechanisms of autophagy and give examples illustrating the connection between autophagy mechanisms and human diseases and finally give examples of autophagy modulating therapy approaches. 

Selected references:

Nobel Prize Press release: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2016/press.html 

Nobel Prize Talk of Prof. Ohsumi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uu9feq0fR0 

Yang Z, Klionsky DJ. Eaten alive: a history of macroautophagy. Nat Cell Biol. 2010 Sep;12(9):814-22.

Gozuacik Lab: //myweb.sabanciuniv.edu/dgozuacik/