Last Update:
July 10, 2009

Back to the Summary of Research

• Nutrient signaling: the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)
  mTOR is a central regulator of cell growth by integrating signals from nutrients, growth factors and energy status. mTOR assembles into two multi-protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, which have distinctive structural and functional features. The rapamycin-sensitive mTORC1 is responsible for control of cell growth and protein synthesis, whereas the mTORC2 controls actin cytoskeleton and cell spreading. Dysregulation of mTOR signaling has been implicated in a variety of diseases, such as cancer and metabolic disorders.

We are interested in the regulatory mechanism of mTOR signaling. Using advanced technology such as Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), we discovered a novel regulatory mechanism of mTOR signaling via Hsp90-mediated dynamic remodeling. Our findings demonstrate an unanticipated molecular linkage between cytosolic stress response and nutrient sensing system.

	Stress response: heat shock proteins and global chaperone network (HSR)
	Protein quality control: ubiquitin/proteasome system (UPS)