# Identification of new regulators of autophagy in T cells

> **NIH NIH R21** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $208,750

## Abstract

Abstract:
Macroautophagy is an intracellular process of degradation that involves sequestration of cytoplasmic contents
into autophagosomes that ultimately fuse with lysosomes for degradation. Our understanding of autophagy has
tremendously expanded over the past decade and we have begun to appreciate the considerable potential of
modulating autophagy as novel therapeutic strategy in order to treat many pathologies. However, whereas our
insight into the mechanistic of this process has increased, evidences are constantly growing and adding
complexity and specificity for each tissue and cell type. We and others have demonstrated that autophagy is
important for T cell differentiation and function and that autophagy receptors and adaptors play a role in the
regulation of T cell responses. We have also shown, that macroautophagy is highly induced upon T cell
activation, but its regulation appears to be non-canonical. The molecular mechanisms that control autophagy in
T cells are still poorly understood. Our data suggests that the activity of autophagy and the selection of
autophagosome cargo in T cells may be regulated differently from other cell types, which may respond to the
differential use of specific cargo adaptor proteins. Our goal is, using a recent innovative strategy to screen for
protein-protein interactions, to identify autophagy adaptors and receptors that participate in autophagy in T
cells and characterized their roles in autophagy and T cell function, We believe that our research will unveil not
only new insights into autophagy and T cell biology but will also uncover new intrinsic regulatory mechanisms
of autophagy in T cells that may identify potential targets to therapeutically modulate autophagy in T cells in a
more specific manner.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9850207
- **Project number:** 5R21AI139955-03
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Yair Moshe Botbol
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $208,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-15 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850207

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850207, Identification of new regulators of autophagy in T cells (5R21AI139955-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850207. Licensed CC0.

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