Chun-Yan Lim
Cell biologist who trained in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how cholesterol controls mTORC1, and now publishes as corresponding author from Guangzhou National Laboratory on lysosome signalling in immunity and nutrient sensing
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou National Laboratory, Guangzhou Medical University (corresponding author, 2025–2026) · Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley (Zoncu lab, papers 2017–2022)
Portrait: LinkedIn
Chun-Yan Lim is a co-author of two Zoncu lab papers in this Atlas. LAW2019 solved the structure of the folliculin complex, FLCN with its partner FNIP2, bound to the Rag GTPases and Ragulator on the lysosome. Folliculin acts as a checkpoint that switches on one of the Rag proteins, RagC, which mTORC1 needs to be recruited to the lysosome. SHI2022 identified LYCHOS, a lysosomal protein previously known only as GPR155, as a cholesterol sensor for mTORC1, the growth-control complex. Cholesterol binds one end of LYCHOS, and mutating that site weakens mTORC1 activation. When cholesterol is high, LYCHOS captures GATOR1, a complex that normally keeps mTORC1 off, and so lets mTORC1 be recruited to the surface of the lysosome, the cell's recycling compartment. The work was done in human cell lines and with purified proteins.
Lim's own Berkeley work tied these pieces to disease. As first author of a 2019 Nature Cell Biology paper, Lim showed that contact points between the endoplasmic reticulum and the lysosome let mTORC1 sense cholesterol, and that in Niemann-Pick type C, a disease in which cholesterol is trapped in lysosomes, these contacts drive abnormal growth signalling. Lim also co-authored a 2017 Cancer Discovery study on drugs that target both the recycling and the growth-signalling roles of the lysosome.
PubMed now lists Lim at the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Guangzhou National Laboratory and Guangzhou Medical University. As senior author of a 2026 EMBO Journal paper, Lim reported that the lysosomal LAMTOR-Rag complex, the same docking station that recruits mTORC1, acts as a checkpoint for the production of the antiviral signal interferon-beta in macrophages. Lim also co-authored a 2025 structure of the KICSTOR and GATOR1-KICSTOR complexes, which hold an mTORC1 brake on the lysosome, with Ming-Yuan Su, another Berkeley alumnus in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | M | Structural mechanism of a Rag GTPase activation checkpoint by the lysosomal folliculin complex LAW2019 Co-author of the structural study showing the folliculin complex as a checkpoint for Rag GTPase activation. |
| 2022 | M | Lysosomal GPCR-like protein LYCHOS signals cholesterol sufficiency to mTORC1 SHI2022 Co-author of the study identifying LYCHOS as the lysosomal cholesterol sensor for mTORC1. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 10
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Chun-Yan Lim.
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- Ashley M. Thelen Cell biologist who did graduate work in Roberto Zoncu's lysosome lab at UC Berkeley, first author of a 2017 review on the lysosome's roles in lipid metabolism, and later a postdoctoral scholar in Philip Greenberg's lab at Fred Hutch
- Daniel K. Nomura Chemical biologist and professor at UC Berkeley who uses chemoproteomics to find druggable sites on proteins, including covalent handles that turn ordinary drug molecules into protein degraders
- Do Jin Kim Structural biologist, now at Denali Therapeutics, who worked in James Hurley's lab at UC Berkeley on the protein machines of autophagy and on the Rag-Ragulator complex that brings mTORC1 to the lysosome
- Douglas F. Covey Medicinal chemist and Andrew C and Barbara B Taylor Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis who designs synthetic steroids and sterols to study neurosteroids, GABA-A receptors and cholesterol sensing, including in two Atlas studies on cholesterol and mTORC1
- Hijai R. Shin Cell biologist who discovered, in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley, that the lysosomal protein LYCHOS senses cholesterol for mTORC1, and who now works at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern
- James H. Hurley Structural biologist who uses cryo-EM to show how protein machines assembled on membranes control autophagy and nutrient signalling. His lab solved structures of the Rag–Ragulator complex and of the whole mTORC1–TFEB–Rag–Ragulator assembly on the lysosome
- Oliver B. Davis Cell biologist who did a PhD in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how lysosomal cholesterol controls mTORC1, and first author of a 2020 study proposing NPC1-mTORC1 signalling as a drug target in Niemann-Pick type C disease
- Roberto Zoncu Showed as a postdoc that mTORC1 senses amino acids from inside the lysosome, through the v-ATPase and Ragulator. His Berkeley lab has since mapped how the Rag GTPases and the folliculin complex switch mTORC1 on, and how lysosomal cholesterol feeds into the same system
- Rosalie E. Lawrence Working in Roberto Zoncu's lab, uncovered the nutrient-driven affinity switch and the FLCN checkpoint that gate mTORC1 activation at the lysosome
- Rushika M. Perera Professor of Anatomy at UCSF whose lab studies how autophagy and the lysosome, the cell's recycling centre, help cancer cells cope with stress, and a co-author of two Science papers on how lysosomal cholesterol switches on mTORC1
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