Professional Interests We demonstrated a role for autophagy in mobilization and degradation of intracellular lipid stores by a process we termed lipophagy, thus mapping autophagy to metabolic regulation. We have recently shown that lipophagy in hypothalamic neurons generates neuron-intrinsic free fatty acids that drive neuronal feeding mechanisms. The primary focus of the lab is to examine the organ-specific roles of autophagy in the regulation of lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis using biochemical, immunohistochemical, and image-based approaches in vitro and in conditional knockout mouse models. More specifically, our interests lie in understanding how autophagy in the CNS and peripheral tissues controls energy, glucose, and lipid metabolism in a time-, diet-, and age-dependent manner.