Takahiro Nobukuni
Showed as first author that amino acids activate mTOR through the lipid kinase hVps34, by a route separate from insulin signalling through TSC, in parallel with a study from Jonathan Backer's laboratory
Associate Professor, Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University · Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel (affiliation on NOB2005, 2005)
Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) ↗
NOB2005 is written as an argument about evolution as much as about signalling. Its claim is that the amino-acid-driven TOR pathway came first, and that in animals the insulin/class I PI3K pathway was grafted onto it — so the two inputs should not be expected to run through the same machinery. Working in George Thomas's group at the FMI in Basel, Nobukuni showed that the amino acid signal to mTOR/raptor goes through class 3 PI3K (hVps34) rather than through the components of the insulin route.
The result matters for how the Atlas reads its own amino-acid branch. The Rag/Ragulator account that came later describes a different mechanism for the same input, and neither account has displaced the other; the corpus now carries both, with the disagreement stated rather than smoothed over.
His publication record after roughly 2019 is in population-scale health research at the Tohoku Medical Megabank rather than in mTOR signalling.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | M | Amino acids mediate mTOR/raptor signaling through activation of class 3 phosphatidylinositol 3OH-kinase NOB2005 First author: amino acids signal to mTOR/raptor through class 3 PI3K, separately from the insulin/class 1 PI3K route. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Takahiro Nobukuni.
- Jonathan M. Backer Showed that the class III PI 3-kinase hVps34, best known for its role in autophagy, is regulated by nutrients and is needed for amino acids to activate S6 kinase through mTOR, in parallel with George Thomas's group
- Maya P. Byfield Showed as first author that the lipid kinase hVps34 is regulated by nutrients and is needed for amino acids to activate S6 kinase through mTOR, in parallel with a study from George Thomas's group