Understanding growth signalling at the lysosome

Cells decide whether or not to grow based upon a host of factors, reducing everything to an on/off switch called "mTORC1". I have spent several years investigating how several different parts of the machinery behind this reduction operate at a molecular level. The decision is made at the recycling centre of the cell, the "lysosome", a compartment encircled by a fine membrane, and this is where all the different machines involved operate together. Unfortunately, almost all studies that have been done, including our own, have been in the absence of this key component. We therefore propose to put everything together and look at more complete machinery on lysosomes with microscopes and biochemical experiments, to try and work out how they operate together. Because the cell-growth machinery is so important in many diseases, especially cancer, this would be expected to help improve our understanding and treatment of many different human diseases.