Analysing lipid pumps of mammalian cells

Lipid flippases are key elements of the secretory pathway, where they are involved involved in vesicle formation. They are supposed to be lipid transpoters, but, in general, are poorly characterized. Many candidate lipid flippases are of medical relevance and their dysfunction contributes to the genesis of severe diseases in man.

 

Here, you will work on the expression and characterization of sperm lipid transporters to unravel their physiological relevance. You will express these lipid pumps in yeast and mammalian cells and study their function in lipid and vesicular transport using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry.

 

Further applied techniques include membrane protein co-immunoprecipitation, RNAi in mammalian cells and site-directed mutagenesis. The work will be carried out at the PUMPKIN Centre of Excellence in the Faculty of Life Sciences.