Ageing is associated with the decline in the capacity of the autophagy pathway to degrade dysfunctional and damaging cellular components, such as protein aggregates and mitochondria. Dysfunctional autophagy, in turn, undermines other cellular functions including DNA repair, metabolism and survival. Therefore, activation of autophagy is considered a promising therapeutic approach to combat ageing and age-related diseases. A large number of screens has been performed and published to date, these have identified a wide range of small molecules that stimulate initiation of autophagy. Prof. Korolchuck lab proposes to initiate a drug discovery program with the aim of identifying novel bioactive autophagy inducers.