Investigating fundamental questions of cancer cell biology
David Sabatini, MD, PhD, is an American Cancer Society Research Professor, a Member of the Whitehead Institute, and Professor of Biology at MIT. In 2020, he was co-recipient of the prestigious Sjöberg Prize—which promotes scientific research on cancer, health, and the environment—for discovering the mTOR protein and its role in controlling cell metabolism and growth. 1:55 – How his research lab has been impacted by the pandemic 3:04 – The history of how TOR was discovered, going back to a soil sample from Easter Island 5:25 – How mTOR is kind of like the general contractor for the cell (“Well, we need more proteins, we need more lipids, we need more mitochondria…”) 6:34 – If mTOR is the “general contractor,” then what is it building? And what are the signals that tell it to make things? 8:27 – “…80% of cancers have to find a way to turn on mTOR…” 14:34 – Why inhibiting mTOR to treat cancer isn’t such a straightforward proposition 18:50 – Research tools that he and his team have developed; for example, one of his students developed the first CRISPR libraries and some of the original CRISPR screening technologies 25:39 – On “molecular nutrition” and research into how diet affects you at the molecular level 27:24 – How ACS funding has impacted his work 30:12 – His message for cancer patients and caregivers