Rick K. Huang
Cryo-electron microscopy specialist who, at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus, helped solve the 2018 and 2019 structures of the protein machines that pass amino acid signals to mTORC1
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia (at the time of the studies, 2018–2019)
Portrait: LinkedIn
Rick K. Huang is a co-author on two Atlas studies from David Sabatini's laboratory, led by Kuang Shen, that used cryo-electron microscopy to see how amino acid signals reach mTORC1, the growth-control complex. Cryo-EM freezes purified proteins in thin ice and builds a 3D model from many thousands of electron microscope images. The Rag GTPases are a pair of switch proteins on the lysosome surface that pull mTORC1 there when amino acids are present.
The 2018 Nature paper (SHE2018) showed the shape of GATOR1, the complex that switches the Rags off when amino acids are scarce, alone and bound to the Rags. It revealed both the part that speeds up the Rags' GTP burning and a second, unexpected grip that holds them in place. The 2019 Cell paper (SHE2019) showed folliculin with its partner FNIP2 sitting on the Rags and on Ragulator, the platform that anchors them to the lysosome. Both studies used purified human proteins and biochemical tests, not cells or animals.
Both papers list Huang at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. A current position could not be confirmed with certainty.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | M | Architecture of the human GATOR1 and GATOR1-Rag GTPases complexes SHE2018 Co-author from Janelia: contributed to the cryo-EM structures of GATOR1 alone and bound to the Rag GTPases. |
| 2019 | M | Cryo-EM Structure of the Human FLCN-FNIP2-Rag-Ragulator Complex SHE2019 Co-author from Janelia: contributed to the cryo-EM structure of the FLCN-FNIP2-Rag-Ragulator complex. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 7
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Rick K. Huang.
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- David M. Sabatini 2 shared studies Identified mTOR (as RAFT1) in 1994. His lab then mapped much of the machinery around it: raptor and rictor at the core of mTORC1 and mTORC2, the Rag–Ragulator system that docks mTORC1 on the lysosome, and the sensors that detect leucine, arginine and SAM
- Kuang Shen 2 shared studies Solved, as a Sabatini-lab postdoc, cryo-EM structures of GATOR1 and of the FLCN–FNIP2–Rag–Ragulator complex, two switches that set mTORC1 activity. His UMass Chan lab studies the structural basis of nutrient sensing
- Edward J. Brignole Research scientist who directs the cryo-electron microscopy facility at MIT.nano and whose cryo-EM work helped solve the structures of GATOR1, GATOR2 and Raptor docked on the Rag GTPases for the Sabatini lab
- Kacper B. Rogala Solved the near-atomic cryo-EM structure that shows how mTORC1 physically docks at the lysosome by reading the Rag GTPases
- Kendall J. Condon Ran genome-wide CRISPR screens revealing how mitochondrial stress signals to mTORC1
- Lynne Chantranupong Showed as a Sabatini-lab graduate student that the Sestrins act through GATOR2 to regulate amino-acid signalling to mTORC1. She then discovered the CASTOR proteins, the cell's arginine sensors for the pathway
- Max L. Valenstein First author of the cryo-EM structures of GATOR2, the hub that tells mTORC1 whether amino acids are present, alone and bound to the sensors Sestrin2 and CASTOR1
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