Abstract
Autophagy is a catabolic process highly conserved among eukaryotes, which is involved in the turnover of unwanted and potentially cytotoxic structures. This pathway is essential to maintain cellular and organismal homeostasis, and defects lead to severe illnesses. Crucially, modulation of autophagy has been shown to be an effective therapy to prevent or cure specific diseases. The physiological and pathological relevance of autophagy has attracted the interest of numerous scientists, including Dutch investigators, which are working on different fundamental and translational aspects of this process. A national platform were to exchange knowledge and reagents, and cross-fertilize our research, does not exist. To stimulate autophagy research nationally and internationally, a consortium of approximately 35 top-level Dutch groups working on different aspects of autophagy, has decided to join forces and become member of an already existing international network. Within the Nordic Autophagy Society (NAS), which also includes Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the involved Dutch groups will have the possibility to share reagents, discuss their advances and plan collaborative projects between them and other excellent European laboratories. The goal of this grant application is to obtain funds to financially support the organization of the annual NAS meetings during the next three years as well as the fellowship program for the exchange of young researchers. Moreover, a budget to contribute to the organization of a NAS annual meeting in The Netherlands is also requested. Altogether, we believe that the realization of this initiative is critical to promote cutting-edge autophagy research in The Netherlands.