Autophagy: from phenomenology to molecular understanding in less than a decade

Abstract

In 2000, it was suggested to me that "Autophagy will be the wave of the future; it will become the new apoptosis." Few people would have agreed at the time, but this statement turned out to be prophetic, and this process of 'self-eating' rapidly exploded as a research field, as scientists discovered connections to cancer, neurodegeneration and even lifespan extension. Amazingly, the molecular breakthroughs in autophagy have taken place during only the past decade.