Intracellular lipid transport in immunoregulation and metabolism

Animal cells are essentially assemblies of membrane compartments marked by diversity and asymmetry of lipids. There remains a significant gap in understanding the biological processes and purposes of lipid localization and trafficking in specialized cell types. Immune cells, with their remarkable adaptability to evolving threats and ability to migrate to distinct microenvironments, would heavily depend on cellular membrane reorganization. My research interests encompass how lipids move within the cells and their interactions with the immune system in physiological and disease conditions. In this talk, I will first discuss my recent work on the immunological roles of ASTERs, a novel protein family that facilitates plasma-membrane-to-ER cholesterol transport. Here I will highlight the new functional modality of ASTER-mediated lipid transport as a metabolic checkpoint for lymphocyte response. I will further present new approaches to studying the dynamics of membrane cholesterol during immune activation. Next, I will discuss the functional impact of immune lipid dysregulation on tissue and systemic metabolism. Finally, I will briefly cover the potential of identifying lipid trafficking pathways for engineering immune responses and share the perspective of future research to understand cellular lipid movement in the context of tissue and immune homeostasis.

Speaker: Yajing Gao, UC Los Angeles