Why do cells gorge themselves (Understanding the molecular mechanisms of chaperone mediated autophagy).

随着我们变老，支配生命的基本细胞过程开始失效，导致与衰老相关的疾病，如癌症和神经退化。调节细胞动态平衡的一个过程是自噬，即细胞‘吃掉自己’来循环营养并清除不需要的蛋白质。这个博士项目专门研究了一种称为伴侣介导的自噬(CMA)的自噬。CMA的生理功能是维持能量平衡和蛋白质质量控制，CMA在神经退行性变、癌症和衰老中起着重要作用。该项目将采用跨学科的方法，在Pryor实验室研究溶酶体，使用哺乳动物细胞培养和细胞生物学技术(蛋白质印迹、分子生物学、共聚焦成像、蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用)和整个生物生物学，在果蝇神经生物学家Sweeney实验室研究CMA的分子机制，以进一步确定CMA的分子组成和CMA在衰老中的作用。

The fundamental cell processes that govern life begin to fail as we age resulting in diseases associated with old age such as cancer and neurodegeneration. One process that regulates cellular homeostasis is autophagy where cells 'eat themselves' to recycle nutrients and clear away unwanted proteins. This PhD project is specifically looking at a type of autophagy called chaperone mediated autophagy (CMA). The physiological function of CMA is to maintain energy homeostasis and protein quality control with CMA being important in neurodegeneration, cancer and aging. The project will take an inter-disciplinary approach where the molecular mechanisms of CMA will be investigated in the Pryor lab, who researches lysosomes, using mammalian cell culture and cell biology techniques (western blotting, molecular biology, confocal imaging, protein-protein interactions) and whole organism biology in the Sweeney lab, a Drosophila neurobiologist, using fruit flies to identify further the molecular components of CMA and the role of CMA in ageing.