Stefan Imseng
Structural biologist from Timm Maier's group at the Biozentrum Basel who helped solve the first detailed structures of human mTORC1 and mTORC2 and then worked on a drug to block mTORC1 specifically
Biozentrum, University of Basel (PubMed affiliation 2013–2021, at the time of the studies) · PhD, University of Basel (2016, thesis on the structure of mTORC1, advisors Timm Maier and Tilman Schirmer)
Portrait: Aukera Therapeutics
To see how a protein machine works, structural biologists try to see its shape. Stefan Imseng is a co-author of three Atlas studies that did this for the two mTOR complexes using cryo-electron microscopy, which photographs frozen protein molecules and combines thousands of images into a 3D model. The 2015 Science paper (AYL2015) showed the architecture of human mTORC1, the growth-control complex: two copies of mTOR and its partners form a diamond-shaped dimer, and the structure showed how rapamycin bound to its helper protein FKBP12 narrows the entrance to the active site. The 2018 eLife paper (STU2018) did the same for the core of mTORC2, and the 2020 Science Advances paper (SCA2020) sharpened that picture to 3.2 angstroms, showing that the end of the partner protein Rictor covers the spot where rapamycin would bind. That explains why mTORC2 resists rapamycin.
Imseng did doctoral work in Timm Maier's structural biology group at the Biozentrum. The 2016 thesis, supervised by Maier and Tilman Schirmer, was titled 'Structural studies on the target of rapamycin complex 1'. Imseng was first author of a 2018 review on the architecture and activation of the PI3K-related kinase family to which mTOR belongs, and a co-author of later Basel studies on how DEPTOR regulates both mTOR complexes (2021) and on how mTORC1 recognises its substrate 4E-BP1 (2021).
In 2018 the Biozentrum announced an Innosuisse-funded project in which Imseng and Asier Gonzalez, supported by Timm Maier and Michael Hall, set out to develop a lead compound that blocks mTORC1 specifically, as a possible drug for tuberous sclerosis. A current position could not be confirmed.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | M | Architecture of human mTOR complex 1 AYL2015 Co-author: part of the team that solved the cryo-EM architecture of human mTORC1, including its complex with FKBP12-rapamycin. |
| 2018 | M | Architecture of the human mTORC2 core complex STU2018 Co-author: contributed to the first architecture of the human mTORC2 core complex. |
| 2020 | M | The 3.2-Å resolution structure of human mTORC2. SCA2020 Co-author: contributed to the 3.2 angstrom structure of human mTORC2 that pinpoints Rictor as the cause of its rapamycin insensitivity. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 9
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Stefan Imseng.
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- Daniel Boehringer 3 shared studies Electron microscopy specialist at ETH Zurich whose cryo-EM work underpins the Atlas structures of human mTORC1 and mTORC2
- Michael N. Hall 3 shared studies Discovered TOR in yeast in 1991 and established it as a central controller of cell growth that responds to nutrients. His lab later showed that TOR works in two distinct complexes, TORC1 and TORC2, only one of which is blocked by rapamycin
- Nenad Ban 3 shared studies Structural biologist known for atomic structures of the ribosome and for work on how cells make, fold and sort proteins.
- Timm Maier 3 shared studies Solved some of the first cryo-EM structures of human mTORC1 (with Nenad Ban's group) and mTORC2, including a high-resolution map of mTORC2
- Alain Scaiola 2 shared studies Structural biologist in Nenad Ban's group at ETH Zurich who solved the 3.2-angstrom cryo-EM structure of human mTORC2 and works on how ribosomes are built and how new proteins are processed
- Edward Stuttfeld 2 shared studies Structural biologist who led the 2018 eLife study that gave the first detailed picture of the human mTORC2 core complex, working in Timm Maier's lab in Basel
- Evelyn Sauer 2 shared studies Structural biologist at the Biozentrum Basel who worked on the structure of the mTOR kinase and contributed to the cryo-EM structures of human mTORC1 and mTORC2
- Christopher Aylett 2 shared studies Structural biologist who solved the first cryo-EM architecture of human mTORC1 at ETH Zurich and now leads a cryo-EM group at Imperial College London
- Mitsugu Shimobayashi Metabolism researcher who trained with Michael Hall in Basel on mTOR in fat tissue and now leads a group at KU Leuven studying how fat and liver control sugar and lipid storage
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