Oliver B. Davis
Cell biologist who did a PhD in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how lysosomal cholesterol controls mTORC1, and first author of a 2020 study proposing NPC1-mTORC1 signalling as a drug target in Niemann-Pick type C disease
PhD, University of California, Berkeley (2020, advisor Roberto Zoncu) · Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Paul F. Glenn Center for Aging Research, University of California, Berkeley (Zoncu lab, papers 2017–2022, at the time of the study)
Lab lineagetrained under Roberto Zoncu →
Portrait: LinkedIn
Oliver Davis is a co-author of two Zoncu lab papers in this Atlas on cholesterol and mTORC1. Every cell has to decide whether it has enough raw materials to grow. mTORC1, the growth-control complex, makes that decision on the surface of the lysosome, the cell's recycling compartment, where it is switched on when nutrients are present. Amino acids were the best-known signal; CAS2017 showed that cholesterol inside the lysosome is another one. SLC38A9, a transporter-like protein already known to sense the amino acid arginine, is needed for cholesterol to switch mTORC1 on, and it uses separate cholesterol-responsive parts of the protein to do it. NPC1, the protein that moves cholesterol out of the lysosome and is faulty in Niemann-Pick type C disease, binds SLC38A9 and holds mTORC1 back. The experiments used cell lines and fibroblasts from patients, not whole animals. SHI2022 then found the cholesterol sensor itself: LYCHOS, a lysosomal protein previously known only as GPR155. Cholesterol binds one end of LYCHOS, and when cholesterol is high LYCHOS captures GATOR1, a complex that normally keeps mTORC1 off, which lets mTORC1 be recruited to the lysosome. This work was done in human cell lines and with purified proteins.
Davis followed this up as first author of a 2020 Developmental Cell paper titled 'NPC1-mTORC1 signaling couples cholesterol sensing to organelle homeostasis and is a targetable pathway in Niemann-Pick type C'. Niemann-Pick type C is a rare inherited disease in which cholesterol gets trapped in lysosomes and the brain and liver are damaged. The paper linked this cholesterol signal to the health of the cell's organelles and suggested that blocking mTORC1 could be a way to treat the disease. Davis was also second author of a 2019 Nature Cell Biology paper showing that contacts between the endoplasmic reticulum and the lysosome let mTORC1 sense cholesterol and drive abnormal growth signalling in the same disease.
Davis completed a PhD dissertation at UC Berkeley in 2020 with Roberto Zoncu as advisor, titled 'The Role of Lysosomal Cholesterol Transport in Cellular Nutrient Sensing and Organelle Homeostasis'. It gathers the cholesterol and mTORC1 work described above. No current position could be confirmed, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | M | Lysosomal cholesterol activates mTORC1 via an SLC38A9-Niemann-Pick C1 signaling complex CAS2017 Co-author of the study showing that lysosomal cholesterol activates mTORC1 through SLC38A9 and NPC1. |
| 2022 | M | Lysosomal GPCR-like protein LYCHOS signals cholesterol sufficiency to mTORC1 SHI2022 Co-author of the study identifying LYCHOS as the lysosomal cholesterol sensor for mTORC1. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 8
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Oliver B. Davis.
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- Daniel K. Nomura 2 shared studies Chemical biologist and professor at UC Berkeley who uses chemoproteomics to find druggable sites on proteins, including covalent handles that turn ordinary drug molecules into protein degraders
- Douglas F. Covey 2 shared studies Medicinal chemist and Andrew C and Barbara B Taylor Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis who designs synthetic steroids and sterols to study neurosteroids, GABA-A receptors and cholesterol sensing, including in two Atlas studies on cholesterol and mTORC1
- Rushika M. Perera 2 shared studies Professor of Anatomy at UCSF whose lab studies how autophagy and the lysosome, the cell's recycling centre, help cancer cells cope with stress, and a co-author of two Science papers on how lysosomal cholesterol switches on mTORC1
- Ashley M. Thelen Cell biologist who did graduate work in Roberto Zoncu's lysosome lab at UC Berkeley, first author of a 2017 review on the lysosome's roles in lipid metabolism, and later a postdoctoral scholar in Philip Greenberg's lab at Fred Hutch
- Brian M. Castellano Cell biologist who, in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley, showed that cholesterol inside the lysosome switches on mTORC1 through the SLC38A9 and NPC1 proteins
- Hijai R. Shin Cell biologist who discovered, in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley, that the lysosomal protein LYCHOS senses cholesterol for mTORC1, and who now works at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern
- Chun-Yan Lim Cell biologist who trained in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how cholesterol controls mTORC1, and now publishes as corresponding author from Guangzhou National Laboratory on lysosome signalling in immunity and nutrient sensing
- Ofer Moldavski Researcher who worked on lysosomes and lipid signalling in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley and was first author of a 2021 study on how the oxysterol 4beta-hydroxycholesterol switches on fat-making genes
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