Davide Ruggero
Showed how oncogenic mTOR signalling rewrites which mRNAs get translated in cancer
PhD, University of Rome La Sapienza · Professor of Urology & Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Ruggero Lab, UCSF ↗ Bluesky@ruggerolab.bsky.social ↗
Portrait: UCSF Department of Urology
Davide Ruggero's lab pioneered the use of genome-wide ribosome profiling to ask a question upstream of most cancer genomics: not which genes are transcribed, but which mRNAs actually get translated into protein when oncogenic signalling — including mTOR — is switched on.
His 2012 Nature paper with Andrew Hsieh mapped this 'translational landscape' in prostate cancer, identifying a specific set of pro-invasion mRNAs whose translation is selectively boosted by mTOR signalling, and showed that an ATP-competitive mTOR inhibitor could reprogram that signature and limit metastasis in mouse models. Earlier work from his lab had shown that active-site mTOR inhibitors reveal rapamycin-resistant outputs of both mTORC1 and mTORC2, and that the 4E-BP/eIF4E translation axis is a targetable node downstream of oncogenic mTOR.
The timeline below follows Ruggero's contributions gathered in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | M | Active-site inhibitors of mTOR target rapamycin-resistant outputs of mTORC1 and mTORC2 FEL2009 Shows active-site inhibitors of mTOR target rapamycin-resistant outputs of both mTORC1 and mTORC2. |
| 2010 | M | Genetic dissection of the oncogenic mTOR pathway reveals druggable addiction to translational control via 4EBP-eIF4E HSI2010 Shows genetic dissection of the oncogenic mTOR pathway reveals a druggable addiction to translational control via 4E-BP/eIF4E. |
| 2012 | M | The translational landscape of mTOR signalling steers cancer initiation and metastasis HSI2012 Maps the translational landscape of mTOR signalling in prostate cancer and shows an ATP-competitive mTOR inhibitor reprograms it to limit metastasis. |