Malene Hansen, PhD

Non-canonical functions of autophagy genes in organismal lifespan

Cells in our body maintain homeostasis in a number of ways, and one of them is called autophagy (‘self-digestion’). This is an intracellular recycling process by which damaged molecules and other cellular components are collected into vesicles and degraded. While many genes play roles in this complex biological process, recent studies show that genes acting in the early steps of vesicle building can have additional functions outside of degradation, for example in secretion of proteins. While autophagy genes have been tightly linked to aging and many age-related disorders, the additional functions of early-acting autophagy genes are poorly understood. Dr. Hansen’s proposed studies will investigate the role of these ‘non-traditional’ autophagy gene functions in aging and will provide new molecular insights that may be relevant to the treatment of age-related diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders.