Studies in lung and breast cancer cell lines have shown that the AMPK complex attaches to damaged mitochondria, and that the attachment of AMPK to damaged mitochondria induces the linkage of AMPK to autophagy-related genes (ATG) 16-ATG5-12 and mediates the recruitment of the ATG16 complex to the site of damage (Figure 1, 2). The gene discussed is PRKAB1; the disease is breast cancer.