Lipids play a crucial role in human metabolism and are involved in numerous biological pathways related to pathological states, including cancer. Alterations in blood lipid profiles have been observed in cancer patients, yet the underlying biological mechanisms remain unknown. The ERC Advanced Grant project ONCOLIPID aims to elucidate the mechanisms behind lipidomic dysregulation in cancer, addressing one of the major unmet needs in oncology—early cancer diagnosis. Understanding why lipidomic alterations follow a similar pattern across different cancer types could pave the way for groundbreaking advancements in cancer detection and personalized treatment strategies.
This project seeks to overcome current limitations in lipidomics by developing novel analytical workflows that enable accurate molar quantitation of over 2,000 lipids across more than 80 classes. Using 13C stable isotope labeled internal standards, ultrahigh-resolution chromatography, mass spectrometry, and ion mobility, ONCOLIPID will construct the Cancer Lipidome Atlas (WP1). A newly developed Bayesian-based software platform for automated data processing (WP2) will facilitate statistical evaluation of lipidomic and metabolomic data. Furthermore, this project integrates multiomics approaches (WP3), correlating lipidomics with metabolomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving lipid dysregulation in cancer. By examining these alterations in cell lines, animal models, human tissues, plasma samples, and extracellular vesicles, this research has the potential to identify novel cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
