Jung Min Han
Pharmacologist at Yonsei University who found that leucyl-tRNA synthetase, the enzyme that loads leucine onto its tRNA, doubles as the cell's leucine sensor for mTORC1, and who now studies how this enzyme links nutrients to growth signalling
College of Pharmacy and Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Yonsei University (papers since 2017) · Medicinal Bioconvergence Research Center, Seoul National University (Sunghoon Kim group, at the time of HAN2012)
Leucine is the amino acid that switches mTORC1 on most strongly, but in 2012 nobody knew which protein inside the cell actually detects it. Jung Min Han's 2012 Cell paper (HAN2012), from Sunghoon Kim's group at Seoul National University, proposed an answer. Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LRS) is the enzyme that attaches leucine to its matching transfer RNA so the ribosome can use it to build proteins. The team showed in cultured cells that LRS also binds the Rag GTPases, the switch proteins that dock mTORC1 on the lysosome, and acts as a GAP for one of them in a leucine-dependent way. That turns the Rags to their active form and switches mTORC1 on. An enzyme everyone knew for its housekeeping job turned out to be a sensor as well.
The finding comes from cell experiments, and it gave the field a concrete candidate for the sensor that links leucine to mTORC1.
Han has kept working on LRS at Yonsei University, where Han is a faculty member in the College of Pharmacy and the Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science. As corresponding author, Han led a 2017 Nature Communications study showing that small molecules blocking the contact between LRS and the Rag protein RagD can dampen leucine-driven mTORC1 signalling, and later work on a pyrazolone-based inhibitor series built from that idea. Han also contributed to a 2019 Science paper showing that LRS1 controls leucine use depending on glucose supply, and was senior author on work showing that a sugar tag on LRS1 links leucine and glucose availability to mTORC1.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | M | Leucyl-tRNA synthetase is an intracellular leucine sensor for the mTORC1-signaling pathway HAN2012 First author: showed in cells that leucyl-tRNA synthetase senses leucine and activates mTORC1 by acting on the Rag GTPases. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Jung Min Han.
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- Sunghoon Kim Senior author of the 2012 study proposing leucyl-tRNA synthetase as an intracellular leucine sensor for mTORC1, part of his broader work on the signalling roles of tRNA synthetases
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