Daniela Cota
Studies how the brain senses nutrients and hormones to control food intake and body weight; as a postdoc in Cincinnati she was first author of the rat study that tied hypothalamic mTOR signalling to food intake and leptin action.
INSERM Research Director (DR2) and leader, Energy Balance and Obesity team, Neurocentre Magendie, Bordeaux · Deputy Director, Neurocentre Magendie · postdoc with Randy Seeley and Stephen Woods, University of Cincinnati (2004–2007) · postdoc, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich (2001–2003) · MD and specialisation in endocrinology, University of Bologna
Daniela Cota was first author of the 2006 Science study (COT2006). Working in rats, the team found that mTOR signalling in the hypothalamus, read out as phosphorylated S6K1 and S6, changed with the animal's energy status and was present in NPY and POMC neurons of the arcuate nucleus. Leucine injected into the brain raised hypothalamic mTOR signalling and lowered food intake and body weight, and leptin also raised mTOR activity; blocking mTOR with rapamycin in the brain blunted leptin's effect on eating. The authors proposed that hypothalamic mTOR acts as a fuel sensor. These are short-term results in rats with direct brain dosing.
Cota trained in medicine and endocrinology at the University of Bologna, then worked at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and, from 2004 to 2007, in the University of Cincinnati groups of Randy Seeley and Stephen Woods. She set up an INSERM team in Bordeaux in 2008 and now leads the Energy Balance and Obesity team at the Neurocentre Magendie, whose work includes mTORC1 and mTORC2 signalling in POMC neurons and the endocannabinoid system in energy balance.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | A | Hypothalamic mTOR signaling regulates food intake COT2006 First author: in rats, hypothalamic mTOR signalling tracks energy status, leucine in the brain lowers food intake, and rapamycin blunts leptin's effect on eating. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Daniela Cota.
- George Thomas Purified and cloned S6K1, the kinase that became the classic readout of mTORC1 activity. His lab later showed that mice lacking S6K1 resist diet-induced obesity, and that amino acids signal to mTORC1 through the lipid kinase hVps34 (GUL2008)
- Randy J. Seeley Studies how gut and brain signals control appetite, body weight and blood sugar, including why bariatric surgery works; his Cincinnati lab was senior on the rat study linking hypothalamic mTOR to food intake.
- Sara C. Kozma Studies the S6K/mTOR pathway and how it controls cell growth, ribosome production, diabetes and cancer, including mTOR signalling in liver cancer.
Every researcher with a profile →
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