Laura Brohée
Cell biologist who studied how lipid metabolism and the lysosome feed into mTORC1, first at the University of Liège and then at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne
Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Cell Growth Control in Health and Age-related Disease group (papers 2021–2023; at the time of the studies) · Laboratory of Connective Tissues Biology, GIGA-Cancer, University of Liège, Belgium (papers 2015–2021)
Portrait: LinkedIn
Laura Brohée appears on two Atlas papers about brakes on mTORC1, the growth-control complex. The 2021 Cell study PRE2021 found that G3BP1 and G3BP2, proteins best known from stress granules, also sit on the outer surface of lysosomes and hold the TSC complex there. TSC is the brake that keeps mTORC1 in check, and without the G3BPs it could not reach its target, so mTORC1 over-reacted to amino acids and insulin. The 2023 Nature Cell Biology study NIC2023 found that malonyl-CoA, a building block made during fatty acid synthesis, fits into the same pocket of mTOR that normally binds ATP and blocks it. When fatty acid production slows and malonyl-CoA builds up, mTORC1 activity falls, which links the cell's fat-making capacity to its overall growth. Brohée was a co-author on the first and the second author on the second. Both were mainly cell studies; the 2021 paper added zebrafish experiments on nerve development.
Before Cologne, Brohée worked at the University of Liège in Belgium in the Laboratory of Connective Tissues Biology (Deroanne group), on cancer cell metabolism. As first author, Brohée showed in 2015 that the lipid enzyme lipin-1 shapes cancer cell behaviour and could make rapamycin treatment work better, and in 2018 that the heart drug propranolol made prostate cancer cells more sensitive to blocking glucose use. A 2021 review on lipin-1 as a cancer target followed.
At the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Brohée's papers list the Cell Growth Control in Health and Age-related Disease group, led by Constantinos Demetriades, which also produced a 2021 Molecular Cell paper on how TSC1 binds lysosomal lipids. No current institutional page was found, so the affiliation shown is the one on the Atlas papers.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | M | G3BPs tether the TSC complex to lysosomes and suppress mTORC1 signaling PRE2021 Co-author of the study showing that G3BP1 and G3BP2 tether the TSC complex to lysosomes and so restrain mTORC1. |
| 2023 | M | Malonyl-CoA is a conserved endogenous ATP-competitive mTORC1 inhibitor NIC2023 Second author of the study showing that malonyl-CoA binds the mTOR catalytic pocket and acts as a natural ATP-competitive mTORC1 inhibitor. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 17
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Laura Brohée.
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- Aurelio A. Teleman 2 shared studies Uses fruit-fly genetics and human cells to study how growth signalling through TOR controls cell and body size. His lab showed that starvation and other stresses move TSC2 to the lysosome to switch mTORC1 off
- Constantinos Demetriades 2 shared studies Showed as a postdoc in Aurelio Teleman's lab that starvation and other stresses pull TSC2 to the lysosome to switch mTORC1 off. His group, at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne from 2017 and at ERIBA in Groningen since 2025, studies how cells sense nutrients and stress through mTORC1 and how this changes with age
- Gianluca Figlia 2 shared studies Cell biologist who studied how mTORC1 senses nutrients in Aurelio Teleman's group at the German Cancer Research Center, including the finding that glutamine is sensed through the kinase GCN2, and who now works at the Institute of Neuropathology in Aachen
- Alexander M Heberle Cell biologist and Junior Group Leader at the University of Innsbruck who studies how mTOR balances growth signalling and metabolism when cells are under stress, trained in Kathrin Thedieck's systems-biology group
- Bernadette Carroll First author of the study showing why mTORC1 stays switched on in senescent cells, and co-author on G3BP–TSC and senescence-mitophagy work; her own lab studies how nutrient sensing breaks down in ageing cells.
- Claudio De Virgilio Yeast geneticist whose lab found the EGO/Rag GTPase complex that activates TORC1 and showed that the SEACIT complex (Iml1–Npr2–Npr3) switches TORC1 off by acting as a GAP for the Rag GTPase Gtr1.
- Julian Nüchel Co-author on two Demetriades-lab mTORC1 papers from Cologne: the spatial split of mTORC1 signalling by amino acid source and malonyl-CoA as a direct mTORC1 inhibitor.
- Julian R. Sampson Clinical geneticist who led the consortium that identified the TSC2 gene and led trials of mTOR inhibitors in tuberous sclerosis, including the TRON trial of everolimus for cognition.
- Kathrin Thedieck Senior author of three Atlas studies that treat mTOR signalling as a dynamic network: TSC-independent mTORC2 activation, concurrent AMPK and mTOR activation by amino acids, and G3BP tethering of TSC to lysosomes.
- Lukas A. Huber Cell biologist who studied the p14-MP1 scaffold on late endosomes, a complex later recognised as part of Ragulator (LAMTOR), the lysosomal platform that holds mTORC1 in place
- Mariana de Araujo Cell biologist in Lukas Huber's group in Innsbruck who solved the crystal structure of the Ragulator (LAMTOR) complex, the lysosomal platform on which mTORC1 is switched on
- Mirja Tamara Prentzell First author of the study showing that G3BP proteins anchor the TSC complex to lysosomes, a physical brake on mTORC1; earlier co-author on the dynamic insulin–mTOR network model.
- Peter Gollwitzer First author of the 'Rag dimer code' study showing that the four Rag GTPase paralogues are not interchangeable: RagC/D sets substrate choice and RagA/B sets the response to amino acid withdrawal.
- Raffaele Nicastro Cell biologist at the University of Fribourg who studies TORC1 signalling in yeast and mammals, and first author of the discovery that malonyl-CoA is a natural mTORC1 inhibitor
- Ralf Baumeister Head of the Freiburg department that hosted the Thedieck group during the mTOR network modelling work; co-author on the dynamic mTOR model and the G3BP–TSC study.
- Stephanie A. Fernandes First author of the study showing that lysosomal and cytoplasmic pools of mTORC1 respond to different amino acid sources and phosphorylate different substrates.
- Viktor I. Korolchuk Showed that where lysosomes sit inside the cell tunes mTORC1 activity to nutrient supply. His Newcastle lab found that senescent cells can no longer switch mTORC1 off when nutrients or growth factors are withdrawn, and studies how autophagy and mitophagy decline with age
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