Computer illustration showing the mechanism by which cells remove unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components, known as autophagy. During this process, the target organelles are isolated from the rest of the cell within a double-membraned vesicle called an autophagosome (large, spherical). This then fuses with a lysosome, the contents of which then degrade the target organelles and their constituents are recycled. Although scientists have known about the process for decades, it’s been only recently that the genes involved have been discovered allowing scientists to better understand how the balance of autophagy–too much or too little– can influence disease.