Lipidomics update - May 2009
The lipidomics update provides an overview of developments in lipid research. Each month we offer a fresh collection of research, news and events for the specialist and the interested non-specialist alike. Register for our email alert to stay informed.
Lipid of the month
Cholesterol
Try to do too much and something is bound to go wrong. After two centuries of research, cholesterol has risen to both fame and infamy; essential to life yet integral to disease, intertwined in ever-expanding aspects of animal biology and pathology.
Research highlights
Macrolipophagy: Too much fat spoils the autophagic appetiteCellular lipid metabolism is regulated by autophagy, a finding with implications for the study of metabolic syndrome
Endocytosis: The APPL of my PI3P eyeCoincident acquisition of PtdIns(3)P by endocytic vesicles traveling through the endocytic pathway with attenuation of signaling implicates this lipid in control of intracellular signaling.
Calcium: InsP3 hosts a receptor get-togetherDownstream responses to inositol lipid signaling are tuned by receptor clustering
Fungal toxicity: Based in sphinganineCeramide synthases are inhibited by a family of cereal mold toxins, fumonisins, causing accumulation of a novel category of sphingoid base with potential for cell signaling
News
- Carbon dating shows humans make new heart cells
- NIH announces draft stem-cell guidelines
- Forensic labs warn of deuterated drug threat
- America's science adviser speaks
- FANTOM studies networks in cells
Events calendar
Symposium on Phospholipids in Pharmaceutical Research
10 - 11 May 2009
21 - 24 November, 2010
Research library
- Cardiomyopathies: The fatty hearts of patients with diabetes Nature Reviews Cardiology
- Getting a handle on protein prenylation Nature Chemical Biology
- more from the research library
