Lecture Preview: “Regulation and function of autophagy in cell survival and cell death”

Written by Dr. Eric Baehrecke

Autophagy, or self-eating, in dying cells (Image by Christina McPhee)

Autophagy is a catabolic process that targets cytoplasmic components for degradation by the lysosome.  Autophagy is an important cellular response to stress, and plays essential roles in development, aging, immunity, neurodegeneration and cancer.  Studies of yeast led to the identification of conserved factors that regulate autophagy, but differences in the role of autophagy in specific animal cell contexts suggest that specific regulators of autophagy may exist in multi-cellular organisms.  Our recent studies of the mechanisms that distinguish autophagy during cell survival and death, and how autophagy functions as a tumor suppressor mechanism, will be presented.

Dr. Baehrecke’s lecture “Regulation and function of autophagy in cell survival and death” will be in the Third Floor Lecture Hall of the Forchheimer Bulding at 12PM on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012. 

Exploiting a Bacterial System to Combat Viruses

by Stephen Braigen

In the February issue of PLoS One, a group of researchers reported a technique to selectively clear populations of cells infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), leaving uninfected cells unharmed. What is particularly nifty about the system that they developed is that it uses a protein that bacteria use to keep their growth in check in a low nutrient environment.

Hypnosis: Magic Trick or the Future of Anesthesia?

By Mike Cooper

Before the first use of ether 150 years ago, drinking whiskey and “biting the bullet” were the only methods of curbing the agonizing pain experienced during surgery.  However, the infamous discovery of ether in 1846 by the dentist, Dr. Thomas Morton, changed everything, and anesthesia has paved the way for pain-free surgery.  Using the skill of carefully applied pharmacology, practitioners of anesthesia provide patients undergoing surgery with a painless experience, and often one that they will not remember.  Dr. Melvin Konner, a physician and anthropologist, eloquently describes anesthesiologists as follows: “[They] are the chemists of human consciousness, the technological arbiters of pain, constantly walking the line between life and death, and leading their patients along it.”¹ Because of the high level of responsibility of anesthetists in the operating room, it is imperative that they use the safest and most effective methods of anesthesia available.

H5N1 Redactions: A Moot Point

by Stephen Braigen

By now you have likely heard some whisperings of controversy in the influenza world. If not, I’ll attempt to give a brief summary, though this situation, like many controversies in science, is not a simple tale.

Last fall, Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Dr. Ron Fouchier submitted manuscripts to Nature and Science, respectively, detailing their work on transmissibility in mammals of a particularly virulent strain of influenza (hereafter referred to as H5N1). The ability to jump from one mammalian host to another is a trait that H5N1 in the wild has not perfected, much to our relief. These works outlined the generation and passage of mutant H5N1 strains through a mammalian host (ferrets, in this case). The exact methodology is neither available, nor is it particularly relevant to this commentary, but the takeaway is that the strains were generated in part by the directed manipulation of their genomes, and that in the end, both groups generated viruses that were transmissible in ferrets.