Project description
Mapping membrane lipids with high resolution
Cell membranes are built from lipid bilayers and they protect cells and control nutrient migration by acting as selective barriers. They also contain proteins that facilitate cell communication and define the function of cellular organelles. Membrane lipid composition helps organelles maintain organisation, communicate and adapt to changing cellular demands. Despite their importance, organelle lipidomes remain poorly understood because lipids are highly dynamic and difficult to analyse with spatial and temporal precision. The ERC-funded LipID project will develop a chemical biology strategy to profile lipids at the level of individual organelles in living cells. The idea is to design photoactivatable lipid probes to identify endogenous lipids with high resolution and determine membrane identity.
Objective
Organelle identity, defined by membrane and protein composition, is crucial for maintaining cellular organisation, functions and communication pathways. Disruption of organelle identity can lead to cellular dysfunction and severe health issues, such as fatty liver disease, cardiovascular diseases and lipid storage disorders. Although it is known that lipids are a hallmark of membrane identity, we still have a limited understanding of organellar lipid compositions. Particularly since lipids are very dynamic through transbilayer movement, local metabolism and lipid transfer between organelles, which requires a high temporal resolution to capture. While existing methods are effective for protein analysis, lipid profiling at the organelle level remains challenging.
To answer the outstanding question of how organellar lipidomes shape organelle function, we propose an innovative chemical biology approach for organelle-specific lipid profiling. We will label the lipids of individual organelle membranes in vivo and determine their chemical identity and concentration by lipidomic profiling. We will first design and synthesise functionalised lipid probes for distinct organelles, allowing for their release and photo-crosslinking to endogenous lipids. By analysing the labelled lipids, we will acquire a precise and detailed lipid profiles of individual organelles, and furthermore characterise the lipidome of specific suborganellar membrane domains. This will allow us to define the organelle membrane identity of the major organelles with unprecedented spatial and chemical resolution. Such data will provide the much-needed basis to connect organelle identity and maintenance with function and the research community with open access, high-resolution lipid maps. This has the potential to change the way we think about biological membranes on a fundamental level, advancing not only our understanding of organelle function, but setting the stage to study its impact on health and disease.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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1010 Wien
Austria
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