LipidomicNet: A new EU project gets underway
Work on a new project called LipidomicNet ('Lipid droplets as dynamic organelles of fat deposition and release: translational research towards human disease') has moved forward as funds from the EU have started to flow. The project, approved in May of this year under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), brings together 21 European research groups and 5 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). Its goal is to promote research into the structural and functional role of lipids in human health and disease, and attract the best young investigators to this quickly advancing research area. Lipids are basic building units for biomembranes, where the vast majority of cellular functions take place. Thousands of types of lipids are present within a single cell; the most commonly known is cholesterol. Lipids play a significant role in many wide-spread diseases, including heart disease, obesity-related type 2 diabetes, stroke and cancer, and are implicated in autoimmune diseases. Recent developments in lipid mass spectrometry, together with advanced proteome and transcriptome analysis tools and novel imaging techniques, have made it possible to unravel the complex links between lipids, genes and proteins to understand more clearly how they function in both health and disease. Lipidomics describes and analyses the full complement of lipids in the human body and integrates the data with knowledge of their protein targets and relevant genes. The research groups involved in LipidomicsNet study lipid-protein interactions and investigate the dynamics of fat deposition and release. In certain cells these dynamics serve as a hallmark of 'energy-overload' diseases that have a major impact on healthcare in Europe. Europe has played a pioneering role in the biochemistry and analysis of lipids, both in basic research and industry. The European Lipidomics Initiative brought together European leaders in lipidomics from basic and medical research and industry to shape the way lipidomics research is organised. One of the aims of the initiative was to ensure that new technologies could be applied clinically to assess, cure and prevent membrane lipid disorders. LipidomicsNet builds on a private-public partnership (PPP) to facilitate the translation of new findings or inventions into new technologies and products that will benefit healthcare systems. A central feature of the LipidomicsNet project is its worldwide database, LipidomicNet-Wiki. 'Wiki' is a term used to describe a web site that allows visitors to contribute or edit content simply. The LipidomicNet wiki integrates existing lipidomics databases: Europe's Lipidomics Expertise Platform (which was part of the ELife project) and Danubian Biobank consortium, Japan's Lipidbank and the American LIPID MAPS initiative. The site collects and bundles information on lipidomics and its users can add or edit information easily (though this process is carefully moderated). It serves as a platform to for researchers to standardise nomenclature and share their findings and tools. The European Science Foundation (ESF) recently called for a push forward in the science of lipidomics, urging the development of 'a strong, coordinated and interdisciplinary research effort across Europe to understand lipid function and the roles of lipids in health and disease', the integration of European lipid databases and '[the facilitation of] communication with other databases worldwide'. The challenge of uniting all of the data generated in this field and bringing it together with disease pathology in one database has undoubtedly been taken on by the consortium. It is hoped that now the project has begun in earnest, we will see significant advances in the diagnosis, monitoring and possibly curing of many diseases and disorders.