Back in 1999, the Levine laboratory discovered that BECN1 was the mammalian ortholog of the yeast Vps30/Atg6, providing evidence of a rescued autophagy function both in Atg6-deficient yeast and in breast cancer cells (MCF7) expressing low BECN1 levels (Liang et al., 1999). Here, BECN1 is linked to breast cancer.