Almut Schulze
Studies how growth signaling, including PI3K/Akt and mTORC1, drives the metabolism that cancer cells need, notably fat synthesis through SREBP.
Head of Division, Tumor Metabolism and Microenvironment, DKFZ Heidelberg
Almut Schulze heads the Division of Tumor Metabolism and Microenvironment at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Her group studies how cancer-driving signals reshape cell metabolism, using RNA sequencing, metabolic flux analysis and mouse models. Topics include lipid metabolism, ferroptosis and how tumors adapt to low oxygen and low nutrients.
In the 2008 paper in this Atlas, done when her group was in London, the team asked how Akt, a growth signal, gets cells to build fats as well as protein. They found that mTORC1 is needed to activate SREBP, a transcription factor that turns on genes for making lipids. Blocking mTORC1 with rapamycin kept SREBP out of the nucleus, and silencing SREBP reduced cell size, in cultured cells and in flies.
The study showed that mTORC1 coordinates fat and protein production so a growing cell can make both at once.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | M | SREBP activity is regulated by mTORC1 and contributes to Akt-dependent cell growth POR2008 Senior author of the study showing that mTORC1 activates SREBP to drive lipid synthesis, which is required for Akt-dependent cell growth in cells and flies. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Almut Schulze.
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- Thomas Porstmann Cell biologist who, as a researcher in Almut Schulze's laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, showed that the growth kinase Akt drives fat synthesis through SREBP and that this route runs through mTORC1
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