About Oliver's mTOR Atlas
Oliver's mTOR Atlas MCP server provides read-only access to a curated corpus of mTOR studies and related entities for research assistants. It distinguishes evidence types and exposes pathway claims with supporting and conflicting studies, alongside open questions; no key or account is required.
Key features
- 01Search studies by topic and evidence code
- 02Look up authors, genes, drugs, and diseases
- 03Explore pathway claims and evidence
- 04Compare supporting and conflicting studies
- 05Browse open questions and hypotheses
- 06Access citation and dataset metadata
Use cases
- 01Find studies about an mTOR-related entity
- 02Check evidence behind a pathway relation
- 03Review studies on both sides of a contested claim
- 04Identify open questions for research
MCP support
An MCP server that exposes the Atlas's public static API to MCP clients through read-only search and lookup tools. No API key or account is required; the dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http open-mtor-atlas-mtor-atlas https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcp{"mcpServers":{"open-mtor-atlas-mtor-atlas":{"type":"http","url":"https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"open-mtor-atlas-mtor-atlas":{"type":"http","url":"https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"open-mtor-atlas-mtor-atlas":{"type":"http","url":"https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"open-mtor-atlas-mtor-atlas":{"serverUrl":"https://mtor-atlas-mcp.mtor-atlas.workers.dev/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
13This tool takes no parameters.
Details
From the project READMEmTOR Atlas MCP server
Read-only access to Oliver's mTOR Atlas for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol: curated mTOR studies labelled by the kind of study behind them, entities (genes, complexes, drugs, diseases, processes), signed pathway relations with their supporting and conflicting evidence, and the Atlas's open questions.
The server reads the Atlas's public static API (https://mtor-atlas.org/api/v1/, documented at
mtor-atlas.org/api). No key, no account. Data is CC BY 4.0.
Install
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mtor-atlas": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mtor-atlas-mcp"] }
}
}
Claude Code: claude mcp add mtor-atlas -- npx -y mtor-atlas-mcp
Tools
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
atlas_about | Dataset version, corpus snapshot, counts, evidence codes, how to cite; contested and conflicting relation counts (derived_counts only when the Atlas does not report them) |
search_studies | Studies by keywords, evidence code, linked entity, year. Also finds a study by PMID or DOI, by a synonym of a linked entity ("sirolimus"), by an author's full name ("Claudio De Virgilio") and by words from the abstract excerpt |
get_study | One study (by Atlas ID, PMID, DOI or PMCID) with its entities, relations and open questions |
search_authors / get_author | People: profiled authors by full name, author-list form, ORCID or lab, with their studies; plus matching names in author lists without a profile |
search_entities / get_entity | Genes, drugs, diseases… with their studies and relations. Each hit says where it matched (match_field); match="name" skips description-only hits |
find_relations / get_relation | Pathway claims ("Rheb activates mTORC1") with mechanism, boundary conditions and confidence |
evidence_between | "What is the evidence that A acts on B?" with both supporting and conflicting studies |
find_contradictions | Contested claims, with both sides of the evidence. Paged (offset), status and breakdown explain the total, only_contested, brief |
list_questions / get_question | Open evidence gaps and testable hypotheses. list_questions takes an optional query, is paged and shortens still_open unless brief=false; get_question has the full text |
Answer size
Long text and repeated records are kept short by default. list_questions cuts still_open at a sentence boundary and sets still_open_truncated; find_contradictions and evidence_between send a study in full the first time it appears in an answer and afterwards as a short card (sid, title, evidence code with its label, url) with full_card_in. Pass brief=false or dedupe=false to get everything. Every list tool takes limit and offset; pass next_offset back as offset for the next page.
Reading the evidence codes
S synthesis of human data · H human study · A animal model · M molecular / in vitro · R review · PP preprint · RT registered trial. The code describes the kind of study, not its quality. Every record the server returns repeats this, so a code never travels without its meaning.
"Not in the Atlas" means not in this curated corpus. It does not mean the relationship is unknown.
Cite
Barton O. Oliver's mTOR Atlas. doi:10.5281/zenodo.22059963.
Give the dataset_version, corpus_snapshot and source_commit returned by atlas_about. A version ending in +unreleased means the live data have changed since the latest archived Zenodo release (archived_release), so that release's version DOI does not contain them.
Configuration
ATLAS_API_BASE (optional) points the server at another copy of the API, for example a local
build: ATLAS_API_BASE=/path/to/dist/api/v1.
Code: MIT. Data: CC BY 4.0.
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.