Sung Hee Um
Molecular biologist at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine whose work centres on the S6 kinases, and first author of the 2004 Nature study showing that mice without S6K1 resist obesity
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon (papers 2012–2024) · Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel (2004)
Sung Hee Um was first author of a 2004 Nature paper (UMX2004) from the group of George Thomas at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel. S6K1 is a kinase that mTORC1, the growth-control complex, switches on when nutrients and insulin are plentiful. The team bred mice that lack S6K1 entirely. On a normal diet and on a high-fat diet these mice stayed lean as they aged and kept their insulin sensitivity, while normal mice grew fat. The knockout mice burned more fat and their fat cells stayed small.
The study matters because it ties one branch of mTORC1 output directly to weight gain and to insulin resistance, the first step towards type 2 diabetes. It was done in mice, so it shows what removing S6K1 does in a mammal, not what blocking it would do in people.
Um went on to lead work on the S6 kinases at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, in Suwon, South Korea. As senior author in 2012, Um showed in mice that the sister kinase S6K2 restrains the liver's production of ketone bodies, the fuel made during fasting, by holding back the receptor PPAR-alpha. Later papers from the same department, in 2020 and 2024, found that S6K1 in the cells surrounding a tumour, especially macrophages, helps tumours build blood vessels and spread to the lung in mice.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | A | Absence of S6K1 protects against age- and diet-induced obesity while enhancing insulin sensitivity UMX2004 First author: showed that mice lacking S6K1 resist age- and diet-induced obesity and stay more insulin sensitive. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Sung Hee Um.
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- George Thomas Purified and cloned S6K1, the kinase that became the classic readout of mTORC1 activity. His lab later showed that mice lacking S6K1 resist diet-induced obesity, and that amino acids signal to mTORC1 through the lipid kinase hVps34 (GUL2008)
- Sara C. Kozma Studies the S6K/mTOR pathway and how it controls cell growth, ribosome production, diabetes and cancer, including mTOR signalling in liver cancer.
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