C. Florian Bentzinger
Muscle stem cell biologist at the Université de Sherbrooke who, as a PhD student in Basel, showed that mTORC1 but not mTORC2 is essential for healthy skeletal muscle
Professor, Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, and researcher at the CRCHUS (since 2016) · Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne (2014–2016) · postdoc, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (2009–2013) · PhD, Biozentrum, University of Basel (2005–2009)
Bentzinger Lab, Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Université de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada) ↗ ORCID0000-0003-0422-9622 ↗
mTOR works in two complexes. mTORC1 needs the partner protein raptor, and mTORC2 needs rictor. Florian Bentzinger was first author of the 2008 Cell Metabolism study in this Atlas (BEN2008) from Markus Ruegg's group at the Biozentrum in Basel. The team deleted raptor or rictor only in the skeletal muscle of mice. Without raptor, the muscles changed their metabolism and developed muscular dystrophy, a progressive breakdown of muscle tissue. Without rictor, the muscles stayed normal. This showed that mTORC1, not mTORC2, is the complex that muscle depends on, a result from mice that has guided later thinking about mTOR drugs and muscle.
Bentzinger did an MSc and then a PhD at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel (2005 to 2009). From 2009 to 2013 Bentzinger was a postdoc at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, and from 2014 to 2016 worked at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences in Lausanne.
Since 2016 Bentzinger has been a professor in the Department of Pharmacology-Physiology at the Université de Sherbrooke and a researcher at its hospital research centre, the CRCHUS. The lab studies muscle stem cells and their niche, the surrounding tissue and extracellular matrix that tell the stem cells when to rest and when to rebuild muscle, and how these signals fail in aging and muscular dystrophy. The group has also developed a protocol for making muscle stem cells from induced pluripotent stem cells.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | A | Skeletal muscle-specific ablation of raptor, but not of rictor, causes metabolic changes and results in muscle dystrophy BEN2008 First author: showed in mice that losing raptor, not rictor, in skeletal muscle causes metabolic changes and muscular dystrophy. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with C. Florian Bentzinger.
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- Markus A. Rüegg Neurobiologist at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel who studies how muscles and the nerve connections that drive them develop, age and fail, including the role of mTOR signalling in muscle.
- Michael N. Hall Discovered TOR in yeast in 1991 and established it as a central controller of cell growth that responds to nutrients. His lab later showed that TOR works in two distinct complexes, TORC1 and TORC2, only one of which is blocked by rapamycin
- Shuo Lin Co-author of the 2008 mouse study showing that muscle needs raptor, the mTORC1 component, to stay healthy
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