Most of lipids reside in cell membranes where they form the fluid matrix, called the lipid bilayer. While structurally lipids are seemingly composed from not too many “building blocks”, there is a potential of generating remarkable, yet poorly understood structural diversity of individual molecular species.
A considerable part of our genome is required to synthesize, metabolize and regulate this lipid diversity. We now know that this lipid diversity is there to regulate many important cell membrane functions.
In fact most cellular processes take place in our cell membranes. They form fluid 2-dimensional matrices with unprecedented material properties, essential for life. Screening the lipid molecules in our blood promises to open completely new perspectives for health and disease.
So how can this major cellular activity simply be ignored? The lipids have for long remained in the shadow of DNA, RNAs and proteins, a revolution for biological research in the last 40 years, which provided rapid venues to understanding cell function and homeostasis.
Now the Max Planck-NCBS Center on Lipid Researchhas everything setup to start a “lipidomics revolution”.