Autophagy is an important cellular process involved in degradation and recycling of cellular macromolecules in response to stress or starvation. Autophagy is carried out in four main phases: phagophore nucleation, autophagosome elongation, docking and fusion with a lysosome, and vesicle breakdown and degradation. ULK1, also known as UNC51-like autophagy activating kinase 1, is a 112 kDa protein with serine-threonine kinase activity. ULK1 is one of two mammalian homologues of the yeast ATG1 kinase, known for its role in autophagy initiation (1).
