Autophagy wins the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Breakthroughs in baker's yeast fuel advances in biomedical research

Autophagy is an ancient pathway in which parts of eukaryotic cells are self-digested within the lysosome or vacuole. This process has been studied for the past seven decades; however, we are only beginning to gain a molecular understanding of the key steps required for autophagy. Originally characterized as a hormonal and starvation response, we now know that autophagy has a much broader role in biology, including organellar remodeling, protein...