Michael Karin
Cell biologist best known for discovering AP-1 and JNK signaling and the IKK-NF-kB inflammation pathway, whose lab also co-led the study of Sestrin as a feedback inhibitor of TOR.
Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology, UC San Diego · Ben and Wanda Hildyard Chair for Mitochondrial and Metabolic Diseases · Born 1951, Tel Aviv, Israel
Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, UC San Diego School of Medicine (La Jolla, California, USA) ↗ Lab lineage1 direct trainee →
Portrait: UC San Diego Department of Pharmacology
Michael Karin is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at the University of California, San Diego. His lab identified the AP-1 transcription factors and the JNK family of kinases, and cloned the IKK complex that switches on NF-kB, a central driver of inflammation.
More recently his group has studied how inflammation, fatty liver disease and metabolism feed into liver cancer. His lab also contributed to a 2010 Science paper led by Jun Hee Lee, together with fly geneticists at Sanford-Burnham.
That study found that Sestrin is switched on by TOR activity and in turn inhibits TOR, forming a feedback loop. In flies lacking Sestrin, signs of aging such as fat build-up, mitochondrial problems and muscle and heart decline appeared, and TOR inhibition or AMPK activation prevented them.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | A | Sestrin as a feedback inhibitor of TOR that prevents age-related pathologies LEE2010 In flies, Sestrin acts as a feedback inhibitor of TOR, and its loss causes age-related fat accumulation, mitochondrial dysfunction and muscle and heart decline that TOR inhibition or AMPK activation prevents; Karin is senior (last) author. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Michael Karin.
- Andrei V. Budanov Helped identify the Sestrins as stress-induced proteins and was among the groups that showed they inhibit mTORC1 through the GATOR complex, a brake that protects against age-related disease
Every researcher with a profile →
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