Expanding mTOR signaling

mTOR Signaling.

The scarcity of nutrients/energy interspersed with sporadic periods of abundance means that cells must transition between anabolic and catabolic states. An important protein that has evolved to respond to this need is the target of rapamycin (TOR). TOR is a well-conserved serine/ threonine kinase that plays an important role in the signaling network that controls growth and metabolism in respon...

An expanding role for mTOR in cancer.

Rapamycin, a valuable drug with diverse clinical applications, inhibits mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), which is a protein kinase that controls cell growth by regulating many cellular processes, including protein synthesis and autophagy. The sensitivity of select tumor cells to rapamycin has ignited considerable excitement over its potential as an anti-cancer therapeutic. Recent findings ...

SnapShot: mTOR Signaling

mTOR signaling in protein homeostasis

Protein homeostasis—a delicate equilibrium between synthesizing proteins, maintaining protein conformations, refolding misfolding proteins and removing damaged proteins—is normally maintained by cellular networks involving ribosomes, chaperones and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Ribosomes decode genetic information and convert it into the amino acid sequences of proteins. Molecular chaperones...

mTOR signaling at a glance.

glance Mathieu Laplante1,2 and David M. Sabatini1,2,3,* 1Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA 3Koch Center for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA *Author for corresponde...