Qian Yang
Researcher in Kun-Liang Guan's Michigan lab and first author of the 2006 study that identified Sin1 as an essential part of mTOR complex 2
Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan (Kun-Liang Guan lab, at the time of the study)
mTOR, the cell's growth-control enzyme, works inside two separate protein complexes. mTORC1 is the one blocked by rapamycin and controls protein production and growth. mTORC2 is not blocked by short rapamycin treatment and adds a phosphate group to Akt, a protein that keeps cells alive and helps them respond to insulin. In 2006 the parts of mTORC2 were still being worked out.
Qian Yang's paper in Genes and Development (YAN2006), from Kun-Liang Guan's lab at the University of Michigan, showed that a protein called Sin1 belongs to mTORC2 but not to mTORC1. The team used fly and human cells and mouse genetics. When Sin1 was lowered, Akt phosphorylation dropped and Rictor, the defining partner of mTORC2, no longer held on to mTOR. In a test tube, mTORC2 needed Sin1 to be active. Sin1 is now counted as one of the core subunits of mTORC2, and this paper was one of the first to show it.
The name Qian Yang is common, and no web page could be tied with confidence to this author, so the profile shows only the affiliation on the Atlas paper.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | M | Identification of Sin1 as an essential TORC2 component required for complex formation and kinase activity YAN2006 First author: showed that Sin1 is an essential mTORC2 component needed for the complex to hold together and to phosphorylate Akt. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Qian Yang.
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- Ken Inoki Showed as a postdoc in Kun-Liang Guan's lab that Akt switches off TSC2, that TSC2 is the off-switch (GAP) for the small GTPase Rheb, and that AMPK and GSK3 feed energy and Wnt signals into the same brake. His Michigan lab studies mTOR signalling in metabolism and kidney disease
- Kun-Liang Guan Showed how growth-factor and energy signals reach mTORC1 through TSC2 and Rheb, and, in parallel with the Sabatini lab, that the Rag GTPases carry the amino-acid signal. His lab also found that AMPK and mTORC1 control autophagy by phosphorylating the kinase ULK1 at different sites
- Tsuneo Ikenoue Gastroenterologist and cancer researcher at the University of Tokyo who trained in Kun-Liang Guan's mTOR lab and now builds mouse models of liver, bile duct and pancreatic cancer driven by the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway
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