Simone Evans
Neuroscience researcher at Dartmouth who studies how growth signals shape the skeleton of sensory nerve fibres, and first author of work showing that PTEN acts on microtubules through mTORC2 rather than mTORC1
Department of Integrative Neuroscience, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Dartmouth College (at the time of the study, 2026)
PTEN is a brake on the PI3K growth pathway. When nerve cells lose PTEN, they grow larger and their axons, the long fibres that carry signals, extend faster. Both mTOR complexes sit downstream of PTEN: mTORC1, best known for driving protein synthesis, and mTORC2, which acts more on the cell's internal skeleton. In EVA2026, Simone Evans and colleagues at Dartmouth asked which of the two carries the signal in peripheral sensory neurons. Using mouse genetics, they removed PTEN together with either Raptor, an essential part of mTORC1, or Rictor, an essential part of mTORC1's sister complex mTORC2. Removing mTORC2, but not mTORC1, brought the fast growth of microtubules, the protein tracks inside axons, and the enlarged size of PTEN-deficient neurons back to normal. The effect was seen at the growth cone, the moving tip of the axon, not along the axon shaft. The work adds evidence on the less studied mTORC2 side of the pathway.
Evans is a member of the Department of Integrative Neuroscience at Dartmouth's Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, the school that runs Dartmouth's PhD programmes. EVA2026 is the only PubMed paper found under this name and affiliation, so no wider research record is described here.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | M | PTEN regulates microtubule polymerization via mTORC2, but not mTORC1, in peripheral sensory neurons EVA2026 First author: used Raptor or Rictor co-deletion in PTEN-deficient sensory neurons to show that mTORC2, not mTORC1, drives faster microtubule growth at the axon tip. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Simone Evans.
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- Jennifer Hong Neurosurgeon-scientist who studies peripheral nerve regeneration and epilepsy
- Meijie Li Dartmouth researcher, working with the Luikart and Hong labs, studying how PTEN controls the neuronal microtubule cytoskeleton through mTORC2 rather than mTORC1
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