Robert R. Latek
Co-discovered mLST8/GbetaL, the third core subunit shared by mTORC1 and mTORC2
Bioinformatics Scientist, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (2001–2005) · contributed to the Sabatini lab's founding mTOR-complex papers (2002–2004) · now Executive Director, Global Brand Lead, Boehringer Ingelheim
Robert Latek was part of the Whitehead Institute team in David Sabatini's lab that, across three papers between 2002 and 2004, worked out the core protein composition of the mTOR complexes: first raptor, mTOR's partner in the nutrient-sensitive complex now called mTORC1; then GbetaL (mLST8), a third subunit that stabilizes the raptor-mTOR interaction; and then rictor, defining the separate, rapamycin-insensitive complex mTORC2.
Together with colleagues including Do-Hyung Kim, Dos Sarbassov and Siraj Ali, this run of papers gave the field its first parts list for the two mTOR complexes — the biochemical scaffolding that essentially all subsequent mTOR signalling research has built on.
Latek's role in those papers reflects his position at the Institute: he was on Whitehead's bioinformatics staff (Bioinformatics Scientist, then Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, 2001–2005), building expression, promoter and protein-structure analyses for Institute faculty rather than running a bench of his own. After Whitehead he moved into pharmaceutical development — more than a decade at Bristol-Myers Squibb in discovery medicine and immuno-oncology clinical research, then Kyowa Kirin, and since 2021 Boehringer Ingelheim, where he is now Executive Director and Global Brand Lead in oncology (career details from his public LinkedIn profile; no institutional portrait is available).
The timeline below follows Latek's contributions gathered in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | M | mTOR interacts with raptor to form a nutrient-sensitive complex that signals to the cell growth machinery KIM2002 Co-authors the discovery that raptor forms a nutrient-sensitive complex with mTOR that signals to the cell-growth machinery — the founding description of mTORC1. |
| 2003 | M | GbetaL, a positive regulator of the rapamycin-sensitive pathway required for the nutrient-sensitive interaction between raptor and mTOR KIM2003 Co-authors the identification of GbetaL (mLST8) as a positive regulator that stabilizes the raptor-mTOR interaction. |
| 2004 | M | Rictor, a novel binding partner of mTOR, defines a rapamycin-insensitive and raptor-independent pathway that regulates the cytoskeleton SAR2004 Co-authors the discovery of rictor, defining a rapamycin-insensitive, raptor-independent mTOR complex (mTORC2) that controls the cytoskeleton. |