105th ITC: Lipids as Organizers of Cell Membranes

The focus on proteins has led to neglect of the role of lipids in the function of biological membranes. The lipids have been relegated backstage and became viewed as a boring, inert solvent for hydrophobic proteins. The early insights that specific lipids can regulate membrane protein function were forgotten. In the vast field of signal transduction the roles of lipids as potential allosteric regulators of signalling processes disappeared from view.

However, with the accelerating development of novel and sophisticated spectroscopic and imaging technology, cell membrane research has picked up speed. Also, the deadlock on analytical tools to study lipid diversity has been broken. The issue why our cells make so many different species is beginning to find answers. This is what we want to cover in this meeting.

Kai Simons (Dresden, Germany)
Gisou van der Goot (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Mark M. Davis (Stanford, CA, USA)
Pietro de Camilli (New Haven, CT, USA)
Diego de Mendoza (Rosario, Argentina)
Michael L. Dustin (New York, NY, USA)
Christian Eggeling (Göttingen, Germany)
Gillian M. Griffith (Cambridge, Great Britain)
John F. Hancock (Houston, TX, USA)
Hai-Tao He (Marseille, France)
Joost C.M. Holthuis (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
James H. Hurley (Bethesda, MD, USA)
Elina Ikonen (Helsinki, Finland)
Johannes Ludger (Paris, France)
Benoit Kornmann (Zürich, Switzerland)
Akihiro Kusumi (Shougoin, Kyoto, Japan)
Vivek Malhotra (Barcelona, Spain)
Satyajit Mayor (Bangalore, India)
Harvey T. McMahon (Cambridge, Great Britain)
Robert Parton (Brisbane, St. Lucia, Australia)
William Prinz (Bethesda, MD, USA)
Aurélien Roux (Geneva, Switzerland)
Ivo F. Sbalzarini (Zürich, Switzerland)
Maya Schuldiner (Rehovot, Israel)
Gerhard, J. Schütz (Linz, Austria)
Petra Schwille (Dresden, Germany)
Ilpo Vattulainen (Tampere, Finland)
Sarah Veatch (Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
Gunnar von Heijne (Stockholm, Sweden)
Thomas Walz (Boston, MA, USA)