Laboratory of Molecular Stress Biology

Maintenance of membrane homeostasis and the development of cellular stress response pathways are fundamental for life. Dissection the components of these defence mechanisms is challenging and requires integration of multidisciplinary approaches that span cell biology, biophysics, biochemistry, and computational modelling, to enable the identification of novel membrane sensors and mapping of the homeostatic response elements.

We aim to understand the role of biological membranes in sensing and coping with environmental stresses, including pathophysiological conditions (e.g. cancer, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases), in which membrane homeostasis and cellular stress response is altered or deregulated.

Our experimental models include yeast, mammalian cell cultures and in vivo animal models. We investigate the effect of mild heat shock to mimic fever or global warming, we study cellular and animal models of diseases or aging as well as we screen novel small molecule membrane modulators for capability of restoring the disturbed membrane homeostasis and defective stress response ability.

To characterize the composition and dynamic structure of these fascinating molecular aggregates and to explore how proteins and lipids function in concert to determine cellular physiology, we apply state of the art experimental techniques, such as ultrasensitive fluorescence microscopy and comprehensive mass spectrometry-based lipidomics.