Michael Lazarou, PhD’s research is focused on autophagy pathways and mitochondrial quality control in health and disease. He was awarded his PhD in 2008 from La Trobe University studying the assembly of membrane protein complexes in mitochondria and their defects in energy generation disorders. In 2010, Dr. Lazarou conducted his post-doctoral research studies at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked on mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. His research focused on PINK1 and Parkin and their role in maintaining mitochondrial health via mitophagy, which led to his receiving the 2013 ASBMB Boomerang Award. In 2014/2015, he returned to Australia to join the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University where he is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and the Deputy Head (Strategy) of the Monash Biomedicine Institute Neuroscience program.