With our research we thrive to better understand the mechanisms of cellular homeostasis. We use the social amoeba and professional phagocyte Dictyostelium discoideum for our studies of the molecular mechanisms of macroautophagy and its connection to the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS). To better understand these crucial cellular processes, we investigate canonical and non-canonical functions of core autophagy proteins and the role of p97 or valosin containing protein (VCP).