Lipid-protein interactions in membrane organisation (LIPIDPROD)
The objectives of this CRP are to understand:
1. The spatial, nanoscopic, organization of both lipid-anchored and transmembrane proteins within membranes of live cells with special emphasis on proteins that have been claimed to be raft-associated.
2. How these nanoscopic membrane protein assemblies can associate to generate more stable raft platforms with additional functions.
3. How membrane proteins interact with the different lipid species and how lipid-protein interactions contribute to membrane function. One specific issue will be to analyze how transmembrane proteins become “raftophilic”.
4. Studies in cells will be complemented by reconstitution studies of selected proteins using simplified model systems such as Giant Unilamelar Vesicles. The goal will be to find the lipid requirements for association with-raft domain.
5. To develop methodology to simulate and model the interplay of lipids and proteins over a multitude of scales in time and space.
Project Leader:
Professor Kai Simons, Max Plank Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
Principal Investigators:
Professor Hannes Stockinger, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Dr. Gerhard Schütz, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Professor Vaclav Horejsi, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Professor F. Gisou Van Der Groot, Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, Switzerland
Professor Petra Schwille, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Professor Ilpo Vattulainen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
