Sonia M. Scaria
Contributed, as an MIT undergraduate in the Sabatini lab, to the discovery of CASTOR1 as the arginine sensor and SAMTOR as the SAM sensor of the mTORC1 pathway
UCSF medical student, continuing hearing-loss genetics research · MD/PhD, UCSF MSTP — PhD in Tward lab, UCSF Otolaryngology (2019–2022, tympanic-membrane regeneration) · BS Biological Engineering, MIT (2017; undergrad researcher, Sabatini lab)
Portrait: Sonia Scaria (X profile @scaria_sonia)
As MIT undergrad, second author on CHA2016 (CASTOR1 discovery) and contributor to GU2017 (SAMTOR) in her final year — two direct nutrient sensors before finishing her degree.
Switched fields entirely: UCSF MD/PhD, studying how the eardrum regenerates (Cell Stem Cell 2020, npj Regen Med 2023 first-author).
2025 first-author paper in Ear and Hearing on genetic-testing equity for hearing loss in underrepresented-minority children.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | M | The Sestrins interact with GATOR2 to negatively regulate the amino-acid-sensing pathway upstream of mTORC1 CHA2014 Sestrins bind GATOR2 to negatively regulate amino-acid signalling upstream of mTORC1. |
| 2015 | M | Sestrin2 is a leucine sensor for the mTORC1 pathway WOL2015 Sestrin2 is a direct leucine sensor whose leucine binding releases GATOR2 to activate mTORC1. |
| 2016 | M | The CASTOR Proteins Are Arginine Sensors for the mTORC1 Pathway CHA2016 Contributed to identifying CASTOR1 as the direct arginine sensor for mTORC1. |
| 2017 | M | KICSTOR recruits GATOR1 to the lysosome and is necessary for nutrients to regulate mTORC1 WOL2017 KICSTOR tethers GATOR1 to the lysosome, required for nutrient control of mTORC1. |
| 2017 | M | SAMTOR is an S-adenosylmethionine sensor for the mTORC1 pathway GU2017 Contributed to identifying SAMTOR as the SAM sensor linking methionine metabolism to mTORC1. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 16
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Sonia M. Scaria.
ShowHide
- David M. Sabatini 5 shared studies Identified mTOR (as RAFT1) in 1994. His lab then mapped much of the machinery around it: raptor and rictor at the core of mTORC1 and mTORC2, the Rag–Ragulator system that docks mTORC1 on the lysosome, and the sensors that detect leucine, arginine and SAM
- Lynne Chantranupong 4 shared studies Showed as a Sabatini-lab graduate student that the Sestrins act through GATOR2 to regulate amino-acid signalling to mTORC1. She then discovered the CASTOR proteins, the cell's arginine sensors for the pathway
- Robert A. Saxton 4 shared studies Solved, as a Sabatini-lab graduate student, the structures of the leucine sensor Sestrin2 and the arginine sensor CASTOR1, showing how each one grips its amino acid. He also co-wrote a widely cited 2017 review of mTOR signalling with David Sabatini
- Jose M. Orozco 3 shared studies Researcher trained in David Sabatini's laboratory at the Whitehead Institute and MIT who showed that mTORC1 senses glucose through the glycolysis metabolite DHAP
- Kuang Shen 3 shared studies Solved, as a Sabatini-lab postdoc, cryo-EM structures of GATOR1 and of the FLCN–FNIP2–Rag–Ragulator complex, two switches that set mTORC1 activity. His UMass Chan lab studies the structural basis of nutrient sensing
- Rachel L. Wolfson 3 shared studies Identified Sestrin2 as the direct leucine sensor of the mTORC1 pathway as a Sabatini-lab MD-PhD student. She also co-discovered KICSTOR, the complex that recruits GATOR1 to the lysosome
- Steven P. Gygi 3 shared studies Mass-spectrometry scientist whose Harvard lab builds large-scale proteomics methods, including the BioPlex human protein-interaction map, and contributed proteomics to the discoveries of the CASTOR and SAMTOR nutrient sensors
- Gregory A. Wyant 2 shared studies Showed that the lysosomal protein SLC38A9 exports leucine and other essential amino acids out of the lysosome, letting cells grow on proteins they have taken up and broken down there
- J. Wade Harper 2 shared studies Co-discovered the F-box motif that links substrates to SCF ubiquitin ligases, and co-leads with Steven Gygi the BioPlex protein-interaction map, which contributed to the discoveries of the CASTOR and SAMTOR nutrient sensors
- Kendall J. Condon 2 shared studies Ran genome-wide CRISPR screens revealing how mitochondrial stress signals to mTORC1
- Xin Gu 2 shared studies Cell biologist who discovered SAMTOR, the sensor that lets mTORC1 read the methyl donor SAM, as a PhD student at MIT, and who now leads a lab at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School studying ubiquitin-independent protein destruction by the midnolin-proteasome pathway
- Eric Spooner Manager of the Whitehead Institute's Proteomics Core Facility, whose mass spectrometry work identified proteins in complexes for many Whitehead studies, including two on amino acid sensing upstream of mTORC1
- Grace Y. Liu Wrote with David Sabatini a major 2020 review of mTOR in nutrition, growth and ageing, and in the Sabatini lab studied how mTORC1 senses nutrients such as serine
- Liron Bar-Peled Showed as a Sabatini-lab graduate student that Ragulator switches the Rag GTPases on, acting as their GEF. He also discovered GATOR1 and GATOR2; GATOR1 switches the Rags off and its genes are mutated in some cancers
- Monther Abu-Remaileh Worked out how to isolate lysosomes fast enough to measure what is inside them, and found that mTOR controls what gets out
- Tim Wang Co-developed genome-wide CRISPR screening in human cells (reported in parallel by Feng Zhang's lab) as a graduate student with David Sabatini and Eric Lander, and contributed to studies showing that the 4E-BPs mediate mTORC1's control of translation and that CASTOR1 senses arginine
Every researcher with a profile →
Thank you. That helps us know which pages have been read by someone who knows the work.
Thank you. We will check it and correct the page.
Thank you. Your answer was counted anonymously.