Hugo Stocker
Drosophila geneticist who worked for nearly two decades in Ernst Hafen's group in Zurich and helped show how insulin and TOR signalling set cell and body size in the fruit fly, including the discovery that Rheb is essential for TOR-S6K driven growth
Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Hafen group (PubMed affiliation 2008–2016) · Zoological Institute, University of Zurich, Hafen group (1999–2007) · current position not confirmed
Portrait: ETH Zurich
In 2003 the TOR pathway had a gap. Geneticists knew that the tumour suppressors Tsc1 and Tsc2 hold growth back and that TOR and its target S6K drive growth, but not what connected them. Hugo Stocker, first author of the Nature Cell Biology paper STO2003 from Ernst Hafen's group, found that the small GTPase Rheb sits in that gap. In fruit flies, cells lacking Rheb stopped growing, and cells with extra Rheb grew larger. Genetic tests placed Rheb downstream of Tsc1-Tsc2 and upstream of S6K. The study was done in Drosophila.
PubMed lists Stocker on about forty papers with Hafen between 1999 and 2016, first at the Zoological Institute of the University of Zurich and later at the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich. The early papers belong to the work that made the fly a model for growth control: CHICO, the fly version of the insulin receptor substrate, controls cell and organ size (1999); fly S6 kinase regulates cell size (1999, with George Thomas's group in Basel); and the fly insulin receptor and seven insulin-like peptides control growth (2001).
Later papers list Stocker as senior or corresponding author. A 2010 Journal of Biology study showed that Madm works with Bunched A to promote growth, and a 2015 Journal of Cell Science paper with Catherine Rabouille's group found that TORC2 helps flies survive heat stress by promoting stress granules, protective clusters of RNA and protein. The most recent record found is from 2016 at ETH Zurich. A current position could not be confirmed.
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 First author: showed in Drosophila that Rheb is required for cell growth and acts between Tsc1-Tsc2 and S6K in the TOR pathway. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Hugo Stocker.
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- 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.
- 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)
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