In pancreatic KRAS-mutated cancer cells, which can proliferate using albumin as the extracellular source of leucine, loss of SLC38A9 or its transport function strongly inhibited mTORC1 activation by macropinocytosed albumin as evidenced by cell proliferation and tumor formation (Goberdhan et al., 2016; Wyant et al., 2017). The gene discussed is ALB; the disease is cancer.