Ernst Hafen
Developmental geneticist who used Drosophila to work out how insulin and TOR signalling control cell and body size, including the role of Rheb.
Professor of Developmental Genetics, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich (since 2006) · Professor, University of Zurich (1997–2005) · Postdoc with Gerald Rubin, UC Berkeley (1984–1986)
Hafen Group, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Gerald M. Rubin →
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons
Ernst Hafen studied biology at the University of Basel, where he earned his PhD with Walter Gehring. After postdoctoral work with Gerald Rubin at UC Berkeley, he became a professor at the University of Zurich and has been a professor at ETH Zurich since 2006. He works on growth control and signal transduction in the fruit fly Drosophila.
In the 2003 study in the Atlas, his group studied Rheb, a small GTPase. Flies with mutations in the Rheb gene had smaller cells, while extra Rheb made cells grow larger.
Their genetic tests placed Rheb downstream of the tumour suppressors Tsc1 and Tsc2 in the TOR pathway, and showed that a main target is S6 kinase. This helped establish the order of parts in the pathway that controls cell growth.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | M | Rheb is an essential regulator of S6K in controlling cell growth in Drosophila STO2003 Showed in Drosophila that Rheb acts downstream of Tsc1-Tsc2 in the TOR pathway and signals mainly through S6K to promote cell growth; Hafen was senior author. |
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