Remembering the ancient latin saying omnes viae Romam ducunt, the yeast cell death community came to the eternal city to attend the 9th International Meeting on Yeast Apoptosis (IMYA), from 17–20 September 2012. More than one hundred investigators from around the world presented and discussed their researches on programmed cell death (PCD) and its role in stress responses, aging and development employing yeast as model organism. On the first day, the meeting took place at the historical Angelicum Congress Center, sharing its opening session with the last session of the 20th Euroconference on Apoptosis (ECDO).

The opening EMBO Lecture by Guido Kroemer (France) introduced the concept of autophagy as a cytoprotective defense mechanism. He showed that autophagy-inducing pharmacological agents, such as resveratrol and spermidine, increase longevity in an autophagy-dependent fashion. He also described the related modification of the acetylproteome, which underscores the importance of an autophagy-regulatory network of antagonistic deacetylases and acetylases that can be pharmacologically manipulated. Valter Longo (USA) underlined the impact of certain mutations in Ras-cAMP-PKA and TOR-Sch9p signaling on aging and the central role of the kinase Rim15p in longevity mutants as well as in calorie-restricted cells. Frank Madeo (Austria) presented results on the polyamine spermidine, which acts as a novel autophagy inducer and a longevity elixir in yeast, flies and worms. The administration of spermidine may help to combat age-associated pathologies.

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