Claire Goul
Cell biologist who did graduate work in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on lysosomes and mTORC1, first author of a major review of how mTORC1 senses nutrients and of a 2026 Nature study on how damaged lysosomes are repaired, now a scientist at CZ Biohub
Scientist, Leonetti group, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco · graduate student, Zoncu lab, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley (papers 2022–2026)
Claire Goul was first author of a 2023 review in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (GOU2023) that explains how mTORC1, the growth-control complex, senses nutrients. mTORC1 is switched on at the surface of the lysosome, the cell's recycling compartment, when amino acids, glucose, cholesterol and growth signals are all present, and it then drives the making of proteins, fats and new cell parts. The review walks through the sensors and switches involved, including the Rag GTPases that bring mTORC1 to the lysosome, and how faults in this system contribute to metabolic disease, cancer and other conditions. It is a good entry point for a reader who wants the whole pathway in one place.
Goul's research in Roberto Zoncu's lab centres on the lysosome. In 2022 Goul co-wrote a short Developmental Cell commentary on lysosome repair, and in 2026 was first author of a Nature paper describing LASER, which links the sensing of lysosome damage to the assembly of the ESCRT machinery that patches the membrane. Goul also co-authored a 2025 EMBO Journal study showing that autophagosomes anchor a checkpoint that shapes PKA signalling in neurons.
Goul did this work as a graduate student in the Zoncu lab, which lists Goul among its alumni. After leaving Berkeley, Goul became a scientist in the Leonetti group at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | R | The molecular basis of nutrient sensing and signalling by mTORC1 in metabolism regulation and disease GOU2023 First author of this review of how mTORC1 senses nutrients and signals in metabolism and disease. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Claire Goul.
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- 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
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