Karen E. Inouye
Metabolic physiologist who runs the Hotamışlıgil lab’s physiology facility, which specialises in glucose clamps, and co-authored two 2026 mouse studies on how feeding controls mTORC1 in liver and muscle.
Senior Research Scientist, Department of Molecular Metabolism, and Director, Sabri Ülker Center Physiology Lab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health · PhD in Physiology, University of Toronto (Mladen Vranic lab) · undergraduate, Queen’s University
Portrait: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Hotamışlıgil Lab)
Karen Inouye is a co-author on the Manning lab liver study, which found that hepatic mTORC1 is not elevated in diet-induced obesity even though insulin and glucose control are impaired (KAL2026). She also co-authored the muscle study that separated feeding-induced from contraction-induced mTORC1 (LAP2026). Her listed expertise is whole-animal metabolic physiology, which suggests she supported the in vivo metabolic measurements. The papers’ contribution statements were not checked.
She earned a PhD in Physiology at the University of Toronto under Mladen Vranic, where she learned the glucose clamp technique, after undergraduate study at Queen’s University. At Harvard she directs the physiology lab of the Sabri Ülker Center and studies non-adipose sources of FABP4 in the Hotamışlıgil lab.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Dietary protein governs the role of insulin signaling in the postprandial regulation of hepatic mTORC1. KAL2026 Co-author: hepatic mTORC1 after a meal depends on dietary protein, and it is not elevated in diet-induced obesity. |
| 2026 | A | Feeding-Induced Muscle mTORC1 Signaling Regulates Postprandial Protein Synthesis and Endurance but Not Muscle Size LAP2026 Co-author: feeding-induced muscle mTORC1 controls postprandial protein synthesis and endurance, not muscle size. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Karen E. Inouye.
- Brendan D. Manning 2 shared studies Was among the groups that in 2002 identified TSC2 as a direct target of Akt, linking insulin and PI3K signalling to mTORC1, and later found TBC1D7 as the third subunit of the TSC complex. His lab has shown how mTORC1 turns growth signals into the synthesis of lipids and nucleotides
- Krystle C. Kalafut 2 shared studies Hepatic mTORC1 and nutrient signalling
- Madi Y. Cissé 2 shared studies Research associate in the Manning lab and co-author on the two 2026 mouse studies showing which feeding signals switch on mTORC1 in liver and in skeletal muscle.
- Samuel C. Lapp 2 shared studies First author of the muscle study showing that feeding-induced mTORC1 activation through AKT–TSC2 drives postprandial protein synthesis but is not needed to build or keep muscle mass.
- Yann Cormerais 2 shared studies Research scientist in the Manning lab who works on how PI3K–AKT–TSC2 signalling controls mTORC1 in living tissues, using mouse models in which TSC2 cannot be phosphorylated by AKT.
- Gökhan S. Hotamışlıgil Leads a Harvard laboratory on metabolic disease and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2026 for achievements in metabolic research
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