Stephanie A. Fernandes
First author of the study showing that lysosomal and cytoplasmic pools of mTORC1 respond to different amino acid sources and phosphorylate different substrates.
Minerva Fast Track Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (since 2025) · postdoc, Demetriades lab, MPI for Biology of Ageing (2023–2025) · PhD, University of Cologne / MPI for Biology of Ageing (Demetriades lab, 2017–2023)
Fernandes Group (Muscle Metabolism and Ageing), Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Constantinos Demetriades →
Portrait: Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (photo K. Link)
She led the work showing that mTORC1 signalling is split in space: a lysosomal pool fed by protein breakdown inside lysosomes and a cytoplasmic pool fed by amino acids from outside the cell, each phosphorylating its own set of substrates (FER2024). She was also a co-author on the discovery that malonyl-CoA, a fatty-acid building block, directly inhibits mTORC1 (NIC2023).
She trained in Brazil (BSc and MSc, University of São Paulo) and did her PhD and postdoc in the Demetriades lab in Cologne. Since 2025 she runs her own Minerva Fast Track group at the same institute, studying how mTOR balances build-up and breakdown in skeletal muscle and how this changes with age; per her institute biography she became a full member of CECAD in 2026.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | M | Malonyl-CoA is a conserved endogenous ATP-competitive mTORC1 inhibitor NIC2023 Co-author on the finding that malonyl-CoA is an endogenous ATP-competitive mTORC1 inhibitor. |
| 2024 | M | Spatial and functional separation of mTORC1 signalling in response to different amino acid sources FER2024 First author: lysosomal and cytoplasmic mTORC1 pools sense different amino acid sources and target different substrates. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Stephanie A. Fernandes.
- Julian Nüchel 2 shared studies Co-author on two Demetriades-lab mTORC1 papers from Cologne: the spatial split of mTORC1 signalling by amino acid source and malonyl-CoA as a direct mTORC1 inhibitor.
- Peter Gollwitzer 2 shared studies First author of the 'Rag dimer code' study showing that the four Rag GTPase paralogues are not interchangeable: RagC/D sets substrate choice and RagA/B sets the response to amino acid withdrawal.
- Claudio De Virgilio Yeast geneticist whose lab found the EGO/Rag GTPase complex that activates TORC1 and showed that the SEACIT complex (Iml1–Npr2–Npr3) switches TORC1 off by acting as a GAP for the Rag GTPase Gtr1.
- Jiyoung Pan PhD student who co-authored the 2024 study showing that mTORC1 does different jobs at the lysosome and away from it, and first author of a 2026 review on why mTORC1 is better seen as a substrate-selective kinase than an on/off switch
- Sabine Wilhelm Co-author on two Demetriades-lab studies of amino acid sensing by mTORC1: the Rag GTPase dimer code and the spatial split of mTORC1 signalling.
Every researcher with a profile →
Thank you. Your answer was counted anonymously.
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.