Michael Hall (University of Basel): The Story of TOR (Target of Rapamycin)

https://www.ibiology.org/cell-biology/target-rapamycin/ Michael Hall describes the discovery of TOR (Target of Rapamycin) protein, the key controller of the size of both individual cells and entire organisms.   Talk Overview: TOR, the Target of Rapamycin, is now known to be a central controller of cell, tissue and organism growth and an important molecule in many human diseases including cancer, cardiac hypertrophy, diabetes and obesity.  Michael Hall explains how the fortuitous decision, in 1991, to investigate the action of rapamycin in yeast, led to the discovery of TOR. Speaker Biography: Dr. Michael Hall received his PhD from Harvard and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institut Pasteur and the University of California, San Francisco.  He joined the Biozentrum of the University of Basel in 1987 and where he is currently a Professor of Biochemistry. Hall’s lab continues to study TOR and its role in development, aging and disease. Hall has received numerous awards in recognition of his pioneering work.  Recent honors include the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2009), the Marcel Benoist Prize (2012), the Breakthrough Prize (2014), the Canada Gairdner Award (2015), and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2017).  Hall is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Learn more about Dr. Hall’s research here: https://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/research/groups-platforms/overview/unit/hall/