Kacper B. Rogala
Solved the near-atomic cryo-EM structure that shows how mTORC1 physically docks at the lysosome by reading the Rag GTPases
Assistant Professor, Stanford (Structural Biology & Chemical & Systems Biology) · postdoc, MIT/Whitehead (Sabatini lab) · DPhil, Univ. of Oxford · MRes, UCL · BSc, Univ. of Edinburgh
Rogala Lab, Stanford University (Stanford, California, USA) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under David M. Sabatini → ORCID0000-0001-5997-7770 ↗
Portrait: Stanford University
First author (ROG2019, Science): cryo-EM at 3.2 Å of Raptor bound to Rag-Ragulator, revealing how mTORC1 reads the Rag GTPases' nucleotide state to dock at the lysosome. Co-first author (VAL2022, Nature): GATOR2's cryo-EM structure — a 1.1 MDa, two-fold symmetric cage with octagonal scaffold and 8 paired WD40 propellers, mapping Sestrin2/CASTOR1 docking sites.
Now leads his own Stanford lab, studying 'cellular intelligence' — how cells sense nutrients and growth signals — with an eye toward cancer and tuberous sclerosis therapeutics.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | M | Cryo-EM Structure of the Human FLCN-FNIP2-Rag-Ragulator Complex SHE2019 Cryo-EM structure of the human FLCN-FNIP2-Rag-Ragulator complex. |
| 2019 | M | Architecture of human Rag GTPase heterodimers and their complex with mTORC1 ANA2019 Structures of Rag GTPase heterodimers with mTORC1 explain nucleotide-state-dependent recruitment. |
| 2019 | M | Structural basis for the docking of mTORC1 on the lysosomal surface ROG2019 Cryo-EM shows how Raptor reads Rag GTPase nucleotide states to dock mTORC1 at the lysosome. |
| 2022 | M | Structure of the nutrient-sensing hub GATOR2 VAL2022 Co-first author: cryo-EM structure of GATOR2, mapping Sestrin2/CASTOR1 docking. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 15
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Kacper B. Rogala.
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- David M. Sabatini 4 shared studies Identified mTOR (as RAFT1) in 1994. His lab then mapped much of the machinery around it: raptor and rictor at the core of mTORC1 and mTORC2, the Rag–Ragulator system that docks mTORC1 on the lysosome, and the sensors that detect leucine, arginine and SAM
- Edward J. Brignole 2 shared studies Research scientist who directs the cryo-electron microscopy facility at MIT.nano and whose cryo-EM work helped solve the structures of GATOR1, GATOR2 and Raptor docked on the Rag GTPases for the Sabatini lab
- Xin Gu 2 shared studies Cell biologist who discovered SAMTOR, the sensor that lets mTORC1 read the methyl donor SAM, as a PhD student at MIT, and who now leads a lab at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School studying ubiquitin-independent protein destruction by the midnolin-proteasome pathway
- Alex Berndt Protein scientist in Roger Williams' group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology who helped solve structures of PI3K enzymes and of mTOR and its partners
- Christopher Johnson Biophysicist who built and ran the Biophysics Facility at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, measuring how proteins fold, bind and change shape for dozens of research groups
- Kuang Shen Solved, as a Sabatini-lab postdoc, cryo-EM structures of GATOR1 and of the FLCN–FNIP2–Rag–Ragulator complex, two switches that set mTORC1 activity. His UMass Chan lab studies the structural basis of nutrient sensing
- Lynne Chantranupong Showed as a Sabatini-lab graduate student that the Sestrins act through GATOR2 to regulate amino-acid signalling to mTORC1. She then discovered the CASTOR proteins, the cell's arginine sensors for the pathway
- Madhanagopal Anandapadamanaban Structural biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology who solved the structure of the human Rag GTPases bound to mTORC1, showing how amino acids bring mTORC1 to the lysosome
- Max L. Valenstein First author of the cryo-EM structures of GATOR2, the hub that tells mTORC1 whether amino acids are present, alone and bound to the sensors Sestrin2 and CASTOR1
- Monther Abu-Remaileh Worked out how to isolate lysosomes fast enough to measure what is inside them, and found that mTOR controls what gets out
- Nouf N. Laqtom Cell biologist who helped develop methods to purify intact lysosomes and used them to find what the Batten disease gene CLN3 does, and who now runs a lab at KAUST on lysosome and endoplasmic reticulum defects in rare brain and metabolic diseases
- Pranav V. Lalgudi Co-author of the cryo-EM structures of GATOR2, the nutrient-sensing hub of mTORC1, in 2022 and of GATOR2 bound to Sestrin2 and CASTOR1 in 2025
- Rick K. Huang Cryo-electron microscopy specialist who, at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus, helped solve the 2018 and 2019 structures of the protein machines that pass amino acid signals to mTORC1
- Robert A. Saxton Solved, as a Sabatini-lab graduate student, the structures of the leucine sensor Sestrin2 and the arginine sensor CASTOR1, showing how each one grips its amino acid. He also co-wrote a widely cited 2017 review of mTOR signalling with David Sabatini
- Roger L. Williams Solved structures showing how the Rag GTPases bind mTORC1 and how TOR forms a dimer, working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
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