Rushika M. Perera
Professor of Anatomy at UCSF whose lab studies how autophagy and the lysosome, the cell's recycling centre, help cancer cells cope with stress, and a co-author of two Science papers on how lysosomal cholesterol switches on mTORC1
Professor of Anatomy and Deborah Cowan Endowed Professor, University of California San Francisco
Portrait: Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research
The lysosome is the cell's recycling centre, and its outer surface is also where mTORC1, the growth-control complex, is switched on. Perera is a co-author of two Atlas studies led by Zoncu that showed cholesterol is one of the nutrients mTORC1 reads there. In CAS2017, the lysosomal transporter SLC38A9 was needed for cholesterol to activate mTORC1, and NPC1, the protein that moves cholesterol out of the lysosome, held mTORC1 back. In SHI2022, a lysosomal protein named LYCHOS was identified as a cholesterol sensor: when cholesterol is high it binds and ties up GATOR1, a brake on mTORC1, so mTORC1 can be recruited and switched on. Both are studies in cells.
Perera is a professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of California San Francisco and holds the Deborah Cowan Endowed Professorship. According to the university profile, the lab studies how autophagy and the lysosome regulate the response to cellular stress in ways that promote cancer progression.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | M | Lysosomal cholesterol activates mTORC1 via an SLC38A9-Niemann-Pick C1 signaling complex CAS2017 Co-author: contributed to the study showing that lysosomal cholesterol activates mTORC1 through SLC38A9, with NPC1 acting as a brake. |
| 2022 | M | Lysosomal GPCR-like protein LYCHOS signals cholesterol sufficiency to mTORC1 SHI2022 Co-author: contributed to the identification of LYCHOS as the lysosomal cholesterol sensor that signals to mTORC1 by binding GATOR1. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 8
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Rushika M. Perera.
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- Daniel K. Nomura 2 shared studies Chemical biologist and professor at UC Berkeley who uses chemoproteomics to find druggable sites on proteins, including covalent handles that turn ordinary drug molecules into protein degraders
- Douglas F. Covey 2 shared studies Medicinal chemist and Andrew C and Barbara B Taylor Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis who designs synthetic steroids and sterols to study neurosteroids, GABA-A receptors and cholesterol sensing, including in two Atlas studies on cholesterol and mTORC1
- Oliver B. Davis 2 shared studies Cell biologist who did a PhD in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley on how lysosomal cholesterol controls mTORC1, and first author of a 2020 study proposing NPC1-mTORC1 signalling as a drug target in Niemann-Pick type C disease
- 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
- Brian M. Castellano Cell biologist who, in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley, showed that cholesterol inside the lysosome switches on mTORC1 through the SLC38A9 and NPC1 proteins
- Hijai R. Shin Cell biologist who discovered, in Roberto Zoncu's lab at UC Berkeley, that the lysosomal protein LYCHOS senses cholesterol for mTORC1, and who now works at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern
- 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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