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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: September 28, 2009
Al Merrill, Professor and Smithgall Institute Chair in Molecular Cell Biology, has recently been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health for the study of autophagy (self-eating), a process used by cells to turn over intracellular components. Autophagy is a promising new target for cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy because it has the potential to prevent, reverse, or retard progression of precancerous lesions as well as to kill tumor cells by "type II" or "autophagic" cell death. Nonetheless, the link between autophagy and cancer is complex because autophagy also affords a means of survival for cancer cells during times of nutrient limitation and metabolic stress. The goal of Merrill's grant is to understand the regulation of the switch between "protective" and "lethal" autophagy as a possible mechanism to control cancer. The findings of the studies could define a new concept in cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy, and identify useful tools and biomarkers for evaluation of these and additional agents in laboratory and clinical follow-up studies.
