ULK1 and cancer: Inversely, inhibitory signals of autophagy (phosphorylation of ULK1 at S757, activation of mTOR at S2448) were associated with increased intracellular levels of NICD and SNAI1 in all cancer cells tested (Fig. 1, Additional file 1: Fig. S1), indicating that autophagy modulates the cellular levels of NICD and SNAI1 proteins, thereby controlling transcriptional activation of several oncogenes essential for EMT and cancer metastasis.