Raúl V. Durán
Cell biologist who showed that glutamine breakdown feeds amino acid signalling to mTORC1, and who now leads research on mTOR, glutamine metabolism and cancer at CABIMER in Seville
Senior Researcher, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), CABIMER, Seville · group leader, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie, INSERM U1218 and University of Bordeaux (PubMed affiliation 2015–2017) · postdoc, Michael N. Hall lab, Biozentrum, University of Basel (2012) · doctoral work, Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, University of Seville and CSIC (2006)
Cells check whether they have enough amino acids before they grow, and mTORC1, the growth-control complex, is the checkpoint. Raúl Durán was first author of the 2012 Molecular Cell study in this Atlas (DUR2012), from Michael Hall's lab in Basel. In cultured cells, glutamine together with leucine switched on mTORC1 by speeding up glutaminolysis, the breakdown of glutamine into alpha-ketoglutarate. Alpha-ketoglutarate then acted through the Rag GTPases, the switches that bring mTORC1 to the lysosome. The work linked a metabolic pathway that many cancer cells overuse to the main growth signal.
Durán started in a different field. A 2006 first-author paper from the Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis in Seville studied how electron-carrier proteins feed photosystem I in cyanobacteria. After the postdoc in Basel, Durán led a team at the Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie in Bordeaux (INSERM and University of Bordeaux). There the group described 'glutamoptosis', a form of cell death caused when glutaminolysis runs unchecked during nutrient shortage and autophagy is blocked (2017).
Durán is now a Senior Researcher of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at CABIMER in Seville. A 2026 paper from the group, with Durán as senior author, found that the FGFR1 receptor drives a metabolic rewiring that lets glioblastoma cells resist the chemotherapy drug temozolomide, and that blocking FGFR1 restored sensitivity in cells and mouse models.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | M | Glutaminolysis activates Rag-mTORC1 signaling DUR2012 First author: showed in cells that glutaminolysis, through alpha-ketoglutarate, activates Rag-mTORC1 signalling. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Raúl V. Durán.
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- Michael N. Hall Discovered TOR in yeast in 1991 and established it as a central controller of cell growth that responds to nutrients. His lab later showed that TOR works in two distinct complexes, TORC1 and TORC2, only one of which is blocked by rapamycin
- Wolfgang Oppliger Long-serving Biozentrum researcher who worked for more than two decades in Basel labs, first on how proteins enter mitochondria and then on TOR signalling with Michael Hall
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