Waste Bag Illustration (IMAGE) University of Vienna Caption Cells must dispose of garbage, too. The responsible cellular process -- autophagy -- can be visualized as packing waste (red) in a bag (green) and monitored in live cells under the microscope (top right). The key coordinator of this cellular "garbage collection" is the protein Atg1. When the team of Claudine Kraft abolished Atg1's ability to modify a component of the "waste bag", the cells were unable to package their waste (bottom right). This finding substantially furthers our understanding of this important cellular process, the malfunction of which can lead to Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Credit Copyright: Daniel Papinski Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.