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.