Lysosome is known as the catabolic compartment for endogenous as well as exogenous molecules. But the recent studies on nutrient sensing kinase-mTOR (Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) suggests that lysosome plays a key role in nutrient sensing and metabolic signal transduction. mTOR is the master regulator of cell growth and metabolism in response to energy, nutrients, and oxygen level. The mTOR complex1 (mTORC1) localizes to the lysosome and gets activated, by which it regulates the growth and inhibits autophagy.

Our interest is to study How mTORC1 assembles? How it affects the lysosome function and localization and how it can be therapeutically intervened?. We use a super-resolution microscopy technique (STORM) to precisely locate and to quantify the mTORC1 component proteins and lysosome spatiotemporally.