Esther Wong graduated from the National University of Singapore with her PhD in 2004. She is an Assistant Professor with the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research focuses on autophagy, a cellular quality control pathway involved in protein degradation by lysosomes. The overall goal is to elucidate yet unknown mechanisms in the degradation of proteins by autophagy and how the related defects result in accumulation of damaged components, proteotoxicity and loss of cognitive functions associated with neurodegeneration and aging.

• Overview. Molecular mechanisms and different favors of autophagy. Autophagy and cell fate. Cross-talk between autophagy and cell death pathways. Autophagy and cellular senescence in aging and pathophysiology. Autophagy, genome stability and cancer. Autophagy in Immunity and infection. Autophagy and regulation of immune response. Autophagy and inflammatory Disease. Autophagy and host response to invading pathogens. Autophagy in Nutrient Sensing and metabolism. Lipophagy: connecting autophagy and lipid metabolism. Functional interaction between autopahgy and ciliogenesis in nutrient sensing. Chaperone-mediated autophagy and energetic balance. Lysosome: A regulator of autophagy and cellular bioenergetics. Autophagy in Neural Homeostasis and Neurodegeneration. Mitophagy in aging and neurodegeneration. Autophagy in neural protein housekeeping: Different ways of taking the trash out. Central role of autophagy in the proteostasis network. Autophagy in synaptic structure and function: implications in brain injuries.