ULK1 and neoplasm: Lastly, mTORC1 contributes to tumor cell growth by inhibiting autophagy, a catabolic pathway that degrades aged or damaged organelles (Figure 1(d)); mTORC1 suppresses autophagy directly by inhibiting the kinase complex unc-51-like kinase 1/mammalian autophagy-related gene 13/focal adhesion kinase family-interacting protein of 200 kDa (ULK1/Atg13/FIP200) which is a key component required for the autophagy induction and indirectly by modulating the expression of death-associated protein 1 (DAP1), a novel substrate of mTORC1 that negatively regulates autophagy [13, 14] (Figure 1(c)).