We, the scientist at the Center for Membrane Biochemistry and Lipid Research, aim to entrench basic lipid research into clinical medicine, to make its impact palpable for patients.

Lipids are the primary molecules that build life – structurally by forming cell membranes, and mechanistically by regulating every aspect in cell metabolism. Our goal is to understand metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, fundamentally and systematically, with an interdisciplinary approach and the help of scientist of a variety of fields. We use analytical, biochemical, biophysical and computational methods on one hand, and disease model systems and clinical cohorts on the other to comprehend lipid function, dysfunction, and interaction with other molecules. We believe that this is the path to identify the molecular origins of diseases. We work right at the interface of scientific progression and clinical application. This ensures a translational approach from bench to bedside and vice versa to serve all areas of medicine, from prevention of metabolic disorders, to identifying so far unknown mechanisms of disease, and to find novel therapeutic approaches.

The Center for Membrane Biochemistry and Lipid Research was founded in summer 2022 and is currently under development (as of January 2022). At the moment it includes the research groups of Prof. Dr. Ünal Coskun and Dr. Maria Fedorova. The research of the Coskun lab focuses on membrane biochemistry in the context of cellular signaling, specifically lipid-protein interactions that they investigate with a variety of methods including protein biochemistry, structural biology and biophysics. Maria Fedorova’s group “Lipid metabolism: analysis and integration” explores the complexity and dynamics of natural lipidomes and combines high resolution mass spectrometry and bioinformatics. Another focus of her research is the development and application of novel mass spectrometry methods to investigate the epilipidome and the role of modified lipids in cellular signaling.