Energy homeostasis is a fundamental property of animals ensuring a constant metabolic supply despite continuous changes in food access and energy consumption. The tightly controlled accumulation of storage fat at occasions of feast and the competence to mobilize these reserves during periods of famine is key to survival. Chronic imbalance of storage fat homeostasis causes severe and prevalent lipopathologies in humans such as obesity.
Regulatory pathways of fat storage metabolism converge at intracellular lipid storage droplets. The unique surface proteome composition of these novel and dynamic organelles determines their properties as regulatory compartment for the intracellular lipid traffic.
We employ the Drosophila model system to identify and functionally characterize evolutionarily conserved genes and regulatory mechanisms of fat storage metabolism with emphasis on lipid droplets.
Head
Ronald P. Kühnlein
Phone: +49 551 201-1045
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