Autophagy in Health and Disease, Second Edition provides a comprehensive overview of the process of autophagy and its impact on human physiology and pathophysiology. It expands on the scope of the first edition by covering a wider range of cell types, developmental processes, and organ systems. The second edition is an international effort by investigators from 15 different countries whose many contributions are comprised in 28 chapters organized into six sections. The first section (Chapters 1-7) covers foundational concepts, including history, trajectory of the research field, mechanisms of autophagy, and autophagy regulation. The second section (Chapters 8-11) details developmental aspects, including stem cells, embryogenesis, hematopoiesis, and paligenosis. The subsequent sections are devoted to the role of autophagy in specific organ systems involved in metabolic control and diabetes (Chapters 12-15), the cardiovascular system (Chapters 16-18), and the nervous system (Chapters 19-20). The final section (Chapters 21-28) addresses autophagy in other organ systems vital to human health and longevity. Also included are chapters on microautophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy, and the potential for autophagy as a therapeutic target. Autophagy in Health and Disease is invaluable to anyone new to the field as well as established investigators looking for a broader understanding of autophagy from outside their specific field of study.

Bev Rothermel, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, with appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine (Cardiology) and Molecular Biology. Her laboratory was directly involved in some of the first studies demonstrating the dual nature of autophagy in the cardiovascular system. She has lectured on the role of autophagy in human disease for more than ten years as a component of the graduate school’s Integrative Biology program. Current studies in her lab seek to understand circadian regulation of cardiac mitophagy as well as identify the causes and consequences of suppressed autophagy in Down syndrome. Her research is supported by the National Institutes of Health’s INCLUDE Project, the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Research Network, and the American Heart Association. Abhinav Diwan, MBBS, is a physician-scientist and a board-certified cardiologist, and directs a laboratory-based research program focused on basic and translational studies to therapeutically target the autophagy-lysosome pathway in human disease. He is Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology and Physiology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA and Staff Physician at the John Cochran Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Saint Louis. Studies from his laboratory have uncovered evidence for acquired lysosome dysfunction as a common cellular in cardiomyopathy and heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Translational research from his program has established the autophagy-lysosome pathway as a viable therapeutic target, with activation of the lysosome biogenesis program as an exciting strategy in these conditions. He has also proven to be an outstanding mentor to the next generation of physician-scientists, an effort he leads as the program director of the Investigator Training Pathway in the Cardiovascular Division supported by a NIH T32 training grant.