Pawan Gulati
First author of the study proposing that amino acids activate mTORC1 through a rise in intracellular calcium and calmodulin binding to hVps34, and later of work linking the obesity gene FTO to amino-acid sensing by mTORC1
University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories (Giles Yeo and Stephen O'Rahilly groups, about 2013–2017; last confirmed affiliation) · Department of Molecular Oncogenesis, Genome Research Institute, University of Cincinnati (George Thomas and Sara Kozma lab, 2008 paper)
Pawan Gulati is first author of GUL2008, done in George Thomas and Sara Kozma's group at the University of Cincinnati. In cultured human cells, adding amino acids raised free intracellular calcium, and this rise was needed for amino acids to switch on mTORC1 and the class III PI3K hVps34. Calcium-bound calmodulin bound a conserved motif in hVps34 that was needed for its lipid kinase activity and for the increase in mTORC1 signalling. The model came before the Rag–Ragulator–GATOR picture and is not part of today's consensus amino-acid pathway.
He then moved to the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories, where as first author of a 2013 PNAS paper he reported a role for the obesity-associated gene FTO in coupling amino-acid levels to mTORC1 signalling, and co-authored work on FTO and TMEM18 in appetite and body weight (2015, 2017). His current position could not be confirmed from the sources checked here.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | M | Amino acids activate mTOR complex 1 via Ca2+/CaM signaling to hVps34 GUL2008 First author: amino acids raise intracellular calcium, and Ca2+/calmodulin binding to hVps34 is needed for mTORC1 activation in human cells. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Pawan Gulati.
- George Thomas Purified and cloned S6K1, the kinase that became the classic readout of mTORC1 activity. His lab later showed that mice lacking S6K1 resist diet-induced obesity, and that amino acids signal to mTORC1 through the lipid kinase hVps34 (GUL2008)
- Sara C. Kozma Studies the S6K/mTOR pathway and how it controls cell growth, ribosome production, diabetes and cancer, including mTOR signalling in liver cancer.
- Takahiro Nobukuni Showed as first author that amino acids activate mTOR through the lipid kinase hVps34, by a route separate from insulin signalling through TSC, in parallel with a study from Jonathan Backer's laboratory
Every researcher with a profile →
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