Robbie Loewith
Showed, as first author in Michael Hall's lab, that yeast TOR exists as two distinct complexes, the basis of the TORC1/TORC2 framework
Full Professor, Univ. of Geneva (faculty since 2005, full professor since 2015) · postdoc, Univ. of Basel (Michael N. Hall) · PhD, Univ. of Calgary (Dallan Young) · BSc, Univ. of Guelph
Loewith Lab, University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Michael N. Hall → ORCID0000-0002-2482-603X ↗
Portrait: University of Geneva
As Hall-lab postdoc, showed (LOE2002) TOR assembles into two biochemically distinct complexes — TORC1 (rapamycin-sensitive) and TORC2 (insensitive, controls actin polarity) — founding the field's organizing vocabulary. In 2009 (FEL2009), helped test some of the first ATP-competitive mTOR inhibitors (TORKinibs) against this two-complex model.
Own lab at Univ. of Geneva since 2005; ERC Starting (2008) and Consolidator (2014) grants; Director (2019–2022), NCCR Chemical Biology; elected EMBO Member.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | M | Two TOR complexes, only one of which is rapamycin sensitive, have distinct roles in cell growth control LOE2002 Defines TORC1/TORC2 as biochemically distinct complexes, founding the two-complex paradigm. |
| 2004 | M | Mammalian TOR complex 2 controls the actin cytoskeleton and is rapamycin insensitive JAC2004 mTORC2 (rictor) controls the actin cytoskeleton and is rapamycin-insensitive, defining a second mTOR complex in mammals. |
| 2006 | R | TOR signaling in growth and metabolism WUL2006 Landmark review synthesizing TOR signalling in growth and metabolism across organisms. |
| 2009 | M | Active-site inhibitors of mTOR target rapamycin-resistant outputs of mTORC1 and mTORC2 FEL2009 Helped test some of the first ATP-competitive mTOR inhibitors (TORKinibs) against both complexes. |
| 2017 | M | Cryo-EM structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae target of rapamycin complex 2 KAR2017 Cryo-EM structure of yeast TORC2 reveals its overall architecture and rapamycin insensitivity. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 10
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Robbie Loewith.
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- Michael N. Hall 3 shared studies 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
- Estela Jacinto 2 shared studies Co-discovered mammalian mTORC2 as a postdoc in Michael Hall's lab, showing that it controls the actin cytoskeleton and is insensitive to rapamycin. Her Rutgers lab, with Bing Su's group, was among those that found SIN1 holds mTORC2 together and studies how both mTOR complexes control metabolism
- Davide Ruggero Showed that oncogenic mTOR signalling reprograms which mRNAs are translated, and that tumours become addicted to this through the 4E-BP–eIF4E axis. His UCSF lab found that mTOR-driven translation of a specific set of mRNAs promotes prostate cancer invasion and metastasis
- Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel Structural biologist who uses cryo-electron microscopy to study ribosomes and translation machinery; co-senior author of the first cryo-EM structure of yeast TORC2.
- Kevan M. Shokat Co-developed the ATP-competitive 'TORKinib' mTOR inhibitors that block both mTORC1 and mTORC2, and later, with Neal Rosen's lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering, RapaLink-1, a third-generation inhibitor that overcomes mTOR resistance mutations
- Manikandan Karuppasamy Structural biologist who used cryo-electron microscopy at EMBL Grenoble to solve the first structure of yeast TORC2, explaining why it resists rapamycin
- Markus A. Rüegg Neurobiologist at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel who studies how muscles and the nerve connections that drive them develop, age and fail, including the role of mTOR signalling in muscle.
- Morris E. Feldman Chemical biologist who, in the Shokat lab at UCSF, introduced PP242 and the TORKinib class of drugs that block mTOR's active site and reach the outputs rapamycin misses
- Stephan Wullschleger Biochemist trained in Michael Hall's Basel lab on TOR complex 2 in yeast, and first author of the widely cited 2006 Cell review that laid out the two TOR complexes and what each controls
- Zachary A. Knight Neuroscientist whose lab studies the brain mechanisms behind appetite, thirst and body-temperature preference; he is a co-author of the 2009 study that introduced the TORKinibs PP242 and PP30.
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