Membrane Systems Biology

Human cells combine thousands of different lipids to construct the diverse cellular membranes with each their properties and functionalities.

We investigate architecture of human cells, and how it is altered in cancers with focus on these membrane lipids. To achieve this, we combine mass spectrometry-based lipidomics and in-house developed methods of systematic purification of diverse cellular compartments.

Our goal is to identify key regulatory mechanisms in the metabolism and transport of lipids essential for cancer pathophysiology and to exploit them in therapeutic strategies.

Selected publications :

Nielsen IØ, Groth-Pedersen L, Dicroce-Giacobini J, Jonassen ASH, Mortensen M, Bilgin M, Schmiegelow K, Jäättelä M, Maeda K: Cationic amphiphilic drugs induce elevation in lysoglycerophospholipid levels and cell death in leukemia cells. Metabolomics 2020;16(9):91

Holland LKK, Nielsen IØ, Maeda K, Jäättelä M: Snapshot: Lysosomal functions. Cell 2020;181(3):748

Nielsen IØ, Vidas Olsen A, Dicroce-Giacobini J, Papaleo E, Andersen KK, Jäättelä M, Maeda K, Bilgin M: Comprehensive Evaluation of a Quantitative Shotgun Lipidomics Platform for Mammalian Sample Analysis on a High-Resolution Mass Spectrometer. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2020;31(4):894-907

Bilgin M, Nylandsted J, Jäättelä M, Maeda K: Quantitative profiling of lysosomal lipidome by shotgun lipidomics. Methods Mol.Biol 2017;1594:19-34

Maeda K, Poletto M, Chiapparino A, Gavin AC: A generic protocol for the purification and characterization of water-soluble complexes of affinity-tagged proteins and lipids. Nat Protoc 2014;9(9):2256-2266

Maeda K, Anand K, Chiapparino A, Kumar A, Poletto M, Kaksonen M, Gavin AC: Interactome map uncovers phosphatidylserine transport by oxysterol-binding proteins. Nature 2013;501(7466):257-261