Igor Ruvinsky
Biochemist from Oded Meyuhas's Jerusalem lab who made the mouse in which ribosomal protein S6 cannot be phosphorylated, showing that this mark controls cell size and blood sugar rather than the translation of TOP mRNAs
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem (papers with Oded Meyuhas, 2005–2009)
Igor Ruvinsky is the first author of RUV2005, a Genes & Development paper from Oded Meyuhas's lab at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. Ribosomal protein S6 sits on the ribosome, the cell's protein-making machine, and is the best-known target of S6 kinase, which mTORC1 switches on. For years people thought that adding phosphate groups to S6 was how cells turned up the translation of 5'TOP mRNAs, the messages that code for ribosome parts. The team made knock-in mice in which all five phosphorylatable serines of S6 were changed to alanine, so S6 could never be phosphorylated. Translation of 5'TOP mRNAs did not change. Instead, cells from these mice made protein and divided faster, yet stayed smaller than normal cells, and rapamycin did not shrink them further. The mice also handled glucose poorly, a sign that their insulin-making beta cells were affected.
This was a clean genetic test of a widely held model, and it moved the role of S6 phosphorylation from translation control to cell size and metabolism. Ruvinsky and Meyuhas summed this up in a 2006 review in Trends in Biochemical Sciences, and a 2009 PLoS ONE paper from the same lab showed that the mutant mice have weak muscles, because their muscle fibres grow less and hold less ATP and phosphocreatine.
These three papers all list the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. No later record could be tied to this person with confidence, so the current position is not known and the affiliation shown is the one on the Atlas paper.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | A | Ribosomal protein S6 phosphorylation is a determinant of cell size and glucose homeostasis RUV2005 First author: built and analysed the S6 phosphorylation-dead knock-in mouse, showing that S6 phosphorylation sets cell size and glucose balance but is not needed for 5'TOP mRNA translation. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Igor Ruvinsky.
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- Oded Meyuhas Studies how mRNAs with a 5'TOP motif, which encode ribosomal proteins, are controlled, and what phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 does in the cell; his lab built the knock-in mouse in which rpS6 cannot be phosphorylated.
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