SFB Lipid Hydrolysis: Cellular lipid degradation pathways in health and disease

Lipid hydrolases are key enzymes involved in cell growth and proliferation, cell signaling, and energy metabolism. Accordingly, lipid hydrolases are essential for all organisms and cause multiple morbidities if they do not function properly. The involvement of lipid hydrolases in metabolic pathways is multifaceted, complex, and to a large extent unknown. In our project, we focus on a thorough understanding of the structure, function, and physiological impact of lipid hydrolases, which is of paramount importance to uncover new principles of pathogenesis and to develop novel treatment strategies. The SFB Lipid Hydrolysis unites the strongest research groups in Austria focusing on lipid hydrolysis pathways to combine their expertise in biochemistry, structural, molecular and cellular biology including transgenic technologies, structural bioinformatics, physiology and pathophysiology, as well as studies with human samples from healthy and diseased individuals. To maximize its research capacity for the investigation of hydrolytic lipid degradation pathways, eight established laboratories join forces within the SFB Lipid Hydrolysis to (1) discover and characterize so far unknown lipid hydrolases and acyltransferases, (2) elucidate the structure and physiological functions of known and newly discovered lipid hydrolases, (3) their regulation, and (4) explore the role of lipid hydrolases in human disease. The expected results will reveal how distinct lipid hydrolases and their mediators contribute to the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, lysosomal storage disorders, liver and gut diseases, ichthyosis, and cancer. The long-term goal of the SFB Lipid Hydrolysis is to discover new treatment opportunities for these highly prevalent disorders.