Rosalie E. Lawrence
Working in Roberto Zoncu's lab, uncovered the nutrient-driven affinity switch and the FLCN checkpoint that gate mTORC1 activation at the lysosome
Assistant Professor, UCLA (since January 2025) · postdoc, UCSF/HHMI (Peter Walter lab) · PhD, UC Berkeley (Roberto Zoncu lab) · BA, Swarthmore College
Lawrence Lab, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (Los Angeles, California, USA) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Roberto Zoncu → Bluesky@rosalielawrence.bsky.social ↗ ORCID0000-0003-3386-7391 ↗
Portrait: UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
As a Zoncu-lab PhD student (Zoncu has his own profile in the Atlas), Lawrence showed (LAW2018) that nutrients destabilize the Rag-Ragulator scaffold, requiring two simultaneous Rag-binding interfaces for mTORC1 capture — an affinity switch cancer mutations short-circuit. Solved (LAW2019), in parallel with a Sabatini-lab study, a 3.6 Å cryo-EM structure of the lysosomal folliculin (FLCN) complex, showing FLCN's RagC-GAP activity is auto-inhibited until the complex disassembles.
Moved to UCSF/HHMI studying the Integrated Stress Response (eIF2B allostery, ISRIB mechanism). Now own lab at UCLA since Jan 2025, studying stress-signaling feedback on metabolism and glial neurodegeneration.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | M | A nutrient-induced affinity switch controls mTORC1 activation by its Rag GTPase-Ragulator lysosomal scaffold LAW2018 Nutrients destabilize the Rag-Ragulator scaffold, requiring two engaged Rag interfaces for mTORC1 capture. |
| 2019 | M | Structural mechanism of a Rag GTPase activation checkpoint by the lysosomal folliculin complex LAW2019 Cryo-EM shows FLCN's GAP activity is auto-inhibited within the intact lysosomal complex, gating mTORC1 activation. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 6
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Rosalie E. Lawrence.
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- Do Jin Kim 2 shared studies Structural biologist, now at Denali Therapeutics, who worked in James Hurley's lab at UC Berkeley on the protein machines of autophagy and on the Rag-Ragulator complex that brings mTORC1 to the lysosome
- James H. Hurley 2 shared studies Structural biologist who uses cryo-EM to show how protein machines assembled on membranes control autophagy and nutrient signalling. His lab solved structures of the Rag–Ragulator complex and of the whole mTORC1–TFEB–Rag–Ragulator assembly on the lysosome
- Roberto Zoncu 2 shared studies Showed as a postdoc that mTORC1 senses amino acids from inside the lysosome, through the v-ATPase and Ragulator. His Berkeley lab has since mapped how the Rag GTPases and the folliculin complex switch mTORC1 on, and how lysosomal cholesterol feeds into the same system
- Ashley M. Thelen Cell biologist who did graduate work in Roberto Zoncu's lysosome lab at UC Berkeley, first author of a 2017 review on the lysosome's roles in lipid metabolism, and later a postdoctoral scholar in Philip Greenberg's lab at Fred Hutch
- Chun-Yan Lim Cell biologist who trained in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how cholesterol controls mTORC1, and now publishes as corresponding author from Guangzhou National Laboratory on lysosome signalling in immunity and nutrient sensing
- Ofer Moldavski Researcher who worked on lysosomes and lipid signalling in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley and was first author of a 2021 study on how the oxysterol 4beta-hydroxycholesterol switches on fat-making genes
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