Nicolas Panchaud
Biochemist who, during a PhD with Claudio De Virgilio in Fribourg, showed that the yeast SEACIT complex switches off TORC1 when amino acids run out, and who later moved into clinical drug development at Novartis
PhD in Biochemistry, University of Fribourg (De Virgilio lab, at the time of the study) · Associate Clinical Scientist, Novartis (listed 2018; joined 2015 through its postgraduate programme)
Cells must stop growing when food runs short. In 2013, Nicolas Panchaud, working in Claudio De Virgilio's yeast lab at the University of Fribourg, was first author of a paper that found one of the switches (PAN2013). TORC1, the yeast version of the growth-control complex mTORC1, is turned on by small proteins called Rag GTPases (Gtr1 and Gtr2 in yeast) when amino acids are plentiful. The team showed that a protein group they named SEACIT acts as a GAP, an 'off button' that makes Gtr1 switch itself off, and that cells without it cannot shut down TORC1 when amino acids are removed. The human counterpart, GATOR1, was described in the same year, so the yeast work helped establish that this brake is shared from yeast to humans. The experiments were done in yeast cells.
Panchaud earned a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Fribourg. According to a 2018 University of Zurich career event page, Panchaud then joined Novartis in 2015 through its two-year postgraduate programme and was working as an associate clinical scientist, a role in planning and running clinical trials. No more recent position could be confirmed.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | M | Amino acid deprivation inhibits TORC1 through a GTPase-activating protein complex for the Rag family GTPase Gtr1 PAN2013 First author: showed in yeast that the SEACIT complex is a GAP for the Rag GTPase Gtr1 and is needed to switch off TORC1 when amino acids are scarce. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Nicolas Panchaud.
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- 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.
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