Savraj S. Grewal
Calgary biochemist who uses fruit flies to work out how nutrients and growth signals such as TOR set the size of cells, organs and the whole animal
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Senior Associate Dean (Research), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary (at Calgary since 2007) · postdoc, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle) · PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology, Oregon Health & Science University (2001) · BSc in Pharmacology, King's College London (1992)
Savraj Grewal is the senior author of the Atlas study SRI2026, done in fruit fly (Drosophila) larvae. A larva has one job: to eat and grow fast before it turns into an adult. Its fat body, a tissue that works like a mix of our liver and fat, senses how much food there is and sends signals that tell the rest of the body how fast to grow. The study found that TOR, the nutrient-sensing growth kinase, keeps the level of TFAM protein low in the fat body. TFAM is the protein that switches on the genes inside mitochondria, the cell's power plants. TOR does this after the TFAM message has been made, not by blocking the gene itself. This TOR to TFAM link in one tissue helps decide how fast the whole larva grows. It is fly work, so it shows a mechanism in an animal, not in people.
The paper continues a line of work from the same lab. In 2022 the group showed that food changes the shape and activity of mitochondria in the fat body, and that turning down mitochondrial energy production only in this tissue made larvae grow faster, through secreted signals that boost insulin action. A 2023 paper found that macrophage-like blood cells use their mitochondria in a similar way to influence body growth.
Grewal studied pharmacology at King's College London, earned a PhD in cell and developmental biology at Oregon Health & Science University in 2001, and did postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Grewal joined the University of Calgary in 2007. The Grewal lab uses Drosophila to study the genetic and molecular controls of cell and tissue growth, with a view to cancer and child development. Grewal is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Senior Associate Dean (Research) at the Cumming School of Medicine, and a member of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Nutrient/TOR signaling controls adipose mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) to regulate organismal growth in Drosophila SRI2026 Senior author: the lab showed in fly larvae that TOR keeps the mitochondrial regulator TFAM low in the fat body, and that this link helps set whole-body growth. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Savraj S. Grewal.
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- Shrivani Sriskanthadevan-Pirahas Fruit fly biologist in Savraj Grewal's Calgary lab who studies how growth signals and mitochondria in one tissue control how fast the whole larva grows
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