Autophagy is a catabolic process involved in a wide array of cellular events including development, aging, immunity and cell death. It is evolutionarily conserved and ubiquitous among eukaryotic cells. In higher eukaryotes, autophagic dysfunction has been associated with cancer, certain muscular diseases and neurodegeneration. Autophagic pathways differ in the way that cytosolic components and organelles are delivered to the lysosome or vacuole. In recent years, morphological, genetic, biochemical and cell biological approaches have begun to provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying autophagy.

The goals of this meeting are to facilitate an integrated approach to defining the role of autophagy in physiological and pathological processes and to elucidate the mechanism of the autophagic pathways in various organisms. International experts studying autophagy in model systems will discuss the most recent results in this rapidly emerging field.

Different Types of Autophagy	Degradation of peroxisomes (blue) by the vacuole (red) in the yeast Pichia pastoris
Autophagosomes (arrow) in the yeast Sacharomyces cerevisia during nitrogen starvation	Autophagosome (arrow) in the hypodermis of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans during dauer developmental arrest