The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sjöberg Prize 2020 of one million US dollars to Michael Hall and David Sabatini. The two researchers have radically changed ideas about cell growth, an important factor in the development of cancer. In doing so, they laid the foundation for new forms of cancer treatment.
When cells divide and grow uncontrollably, it results in cancer. Using a toxin that originates from Easter Island, Rapamycin, Michael N. Hall, from Biozentrum, Universität Basel, Switzerland, and David M. Sabatini, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, have answered important biological questions about cell metabolism and cell growth.
Michael Hall used Rapamycin in studies of basic functions in yeast cells. He discovered two important proteins, TOR 1 and TOR 2. Previously, it was believed that cells grew more randomly, but researchers were now able to show that these two proteins govern how cells grow by controlling how they use the available nutrients. Simply put, TOR functions as a type of project manager in the cell, deciding how nutrients will be used.
