In 2013, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to dr. Rothman in recognition of his ground-breaking discoveries of “machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cell”. Indeed we now have detailed knowledge of the protein machinery that is involved in the budding, transport and fusion reaction of vesicular transport. But despite the fact that lipids play a pivotal role in the budding and fusion reaction, very little is known about their involvement at the molecular level. We are only at the beginning of understanding the function of the individual lipid species. Lipids were long believed to have two general functions: a structural role in bio-membranes and an energy storage role utilizing cellular lipid droplets and plasma lipoproteins. These two general functions, however, do not require such a large diversity of lipid species as being revealed by novel technologies such as lipidomics. Current estimates suggest the presence of over 180.000 different lipid species and a multitude of different functions are expected.
Given the vast amount of literature on the role of proteins in the regulation of intracellular membrane dynamics, it is timely to organize an advanced course on the role of individual lipid species in these processes. In this advanced course we have brought together an absolutely unique combination of frontiers in science in intracellular membrane trafficking, including dr. Rothman, and acknowledged lipid researchers who will meet with young researchers already active in the lipid research field or considering entering the field and who will discuss their mutual results. In addition, the lipid field is technically complex and in this advanced course a special focus will be on the high-throughput approaches in lipid research and in lipid-protein interactions allowing integration of lipid-relevant data in inter-disciplinary fields on complex interactions within biological systems (systems biology).
In this advanced course we will discuss novel high throughput lipid techniques in an integrative manner, i.e. coupled to a particular topic. The course will be organized in an informal setting to facilitate contacts and information exchange. Poster sessions, oral presentations, round table discussions and informal meet-the-expert sessions are scheduled to stimulate interactions between the participants and the lecturers/tutors.
The daily programme can be viewed here