mTOR Academy
What you need first
This course does not start from zero. Here is the short list of things it assumes you already know, each in one sentence, plus six questions to check yourself against. If a few of them are new, that is worth an hour somewhere else first — lesson 03 gets hard quickly.
Seven terms
- Protein — A chain of amino acids folded into a shape; the shape is what lets it do a job.
- Enzyme — A protein that speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up by it.
- Kinase — An enzyme that attaches a phosphate group to another molecule. mTOR is one.
- Phosphorylation — Adding that phosphate group, which changes what the target protein does — often switching it on or off.
- Cell membrane — The fatty boundary around a cell, and around compartments inside it such as the lysosome.
- Gene — A stretch of DNA carrying the instructions for one protein.
- Switching a gene off — Removing or silencing a gene so its protein is missing, which is how biologists ask what that protein was doing.
Check yourself
Six questions. If you can answer five of them, the course will carry you; the sixth is what lesson 10 is for.
A kinase adds what to its target?
Answer
A phosphate group. That is the whole job description.
If a protein is phosphorylated, has it necessarily been switched on?
Answer
No. Phosphorylation changes what a protein does; for some targets that means on, for others off. Lessons 04 and 07 show it: AKT phosphorylation of TSC2 switches a brake off.
What is the difference between a gene and a protein?
Answer
The gene is the instruction in DNA; the protein is the molecule built from it.
Why would a researcher delete a gene on purpose?
Answer
To see what stops working without it. That is the main way a protein's job gets pinned down.
Is the lysosome inside or outside the cell?
Answer
Inside. It is a compartment with its own membrane, and lesson 05 is about why mTOR meets its switch there.
What does 'in vitro' mean?
Answer
In a dish rather than in a living animal or person. Lesson 10 is largely about how much that distinction changes what a result supports.
What the course does not need
- Maths beyond percentages. There is no equation in the course.
- Chemistry beyond school level. No structures to draw, no mechanisms to memorise.
- A prior biology course. The seven terms above are the whole entry ticket.
If a few of these are new
Neither of these is ours and neither costs anything.
- MITx 7.00x — Introduction to Biology: The Secret of LifeFree to audit, self-paced. Covers every term above and a great deal more.
- Khan Academy — Biology libraryFree, short videos. Good for filling one gap rather than taking a course.
More free courses and lectures, with level and certificate for each →
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