Prof. Michael N. Hall

Workplace: Biozentrum, University of Basel

Link(s): Group's webpage

Biography: Mike Hall earned a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1981 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the University of California, San Francisco. He was appointed an Assistant Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel in 1987, and became a Full Professor in 1992. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and has received numerous prestigious awards including the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2009), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2014), the Canada Gairdner International Award for Biomedical Research (2015), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2017), and the Sjöberg Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2020).

Current activities/ scientific goals: Mike Hall is a pioneer in the fields of TOR signaling and cell growth control. In 1991, Hall and colleagues discovered TOR (Target of Rapamycin) and subsequently elucidated its role as a central controller of cell growth and metabolism. TOR is a highly conserved, nutrient- and insulin-activated protein kinase. The discovery of TOR led to a fundamental change in how one thinks of cell growth. It is not a spontaneous process that just happens when building blocks (nutrients) are available, but rather a highly regulated, plastic process controlled by TOR-dependent signaling pathways. As a central controller of cell growth and metabolism, mammalian TOR (mTOR) plays a key role in development and aging, and is implicated in disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Insights on the mTOR signaling network have led to new therapeutic strategies.