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
Internal Medicine residency, Massachusetts General Hospital · MD-PhD, Harvard Medical School (class of 2024) · PhD in Biology, MIT (2022) · research at the Whitehead Institute (Sabatini lab)
Portrait: provided to the Atlas
Max Valenstein trained as a physician-scientist: an MD-PhD at Harvard Medical School, with the PhD in biology done at MIT and the Whitehead Institute in David Sabatini's group. His thesis was titled ‘Integration of amino acid signals by the mTORC1 pathway’.
He is first author of two Nature papers in this Atlas. In 2022 his group solved the structure of GATOR2, a cage-shaped protein complex that sits between the amino acid sensors and mTORC1 (co-first author with Kacper Rogala). In 2025 the work showed GATOR2 bound to Sestrin2 or CASTOR1, and how leucine or arginine makes these sensors let go so that mTORC1 can switch on. He also co-authored the 2018 structure of GATOR1 with the Rag GTPases. He has since moved on to internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The timeline below traces his studies gathered in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | M | Architecture of the human GATOR1 and GATOR1-Rag GTPases complexes SHE2018 Co-author: architecture of the human GATOR1 and GATOR1-Rag GTPase complexes. |
| 2022 | M | Structure of the nutrient-sensing hub GATOR2 VAL2022 Co-first author: cryo-EM structure of GATOR2, the cage that links amino acid sensors to mTORC1. |
| 2025 | M | Structural basis for the dynamic regulation of mTORC1 by amino acids VAL2025 First author: structures of GATOR2 bound to Sestrin2 or CASTOR1, and of leucine-free Sestrin2, showing how the sensors detach. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Max L. Valenstein.
- David M. Sabatini 2 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
- Lynne Chantranupong 2 shared studies 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
- Pranav V. Lalgudi 2 shared studies 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
- Kacper B. Rogala Solved the near-atomic cryo-EM structure that shows how mTORC1 physically docks at the lysosome by reading the Rag GTPases
- Kendall J. Condon Ran genome-wide CRISPR screens revealing how mitochondrial stress signals to mTORC1
- 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
- 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
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