Pavel Barahtjan
@pavelbarahtjan.bsky.social
Lipids | Membranes | Tardigrades | Chemical Biology | PostDoc @EPFL | Alumnus @MPICBB
Lipids build the membranes of all cells, but identifying their precise functions is extremely challenging. Here’s our attempt to change that: How to find and understand lipid-protein interactions, by Katelyn Cook & company. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Happy to see our review on glycosphingolipids in cell identity out in @cp-trendsbiochem.bsky.social. We discuss how GSLs shape cell identity, from biosynthesis to function, and how tools like bifunctional #lipids and MALDI-MSI let us study them to new depths. tiny.cc/t495101
Glycosphingolipids in cell identity: Biosynthesis, functions, and emerging tools
Cell fate is shaped by external cues and intrinsic cellular states. While supracellular signals, such as growth factors, provide instructive guidance, emerging evidence highlights the role of cell-aut...
tiny.cc
Read the Review article "Glycosphingolipids in cell identity: Biosynthesis, functions, and emerging tools" from Dr. Pavel Barahtjan, Nika Goršek, Jean Maillat, and Giovanni D'Angelo: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Glycosphingolipids in cell identity: Biosynthesis, functions, and emerging tools
Cell fate is shaped by external cues and intrinsic cellular states. While supracellular signals, such as growth factors, provide instructive guidance,…
authors.elsevier.com
🧬 Beyond serving as membrane components, #glycosphingolipids help encode cellular identity by shaping membrane organization, receptor signaling, and cell recognition through an intricate molecular #GlycolipidCode. #CellIdentity #MembraneBiology #Lipidomics
Happy to see our review on glycosphingolipids in cell identity out in @cp-trendsbiochem.bsky.social. We discuss how GSLs shape cell identity, from biosynthesis to function, and how tools like bifunctional #lipids and MALDI-MSI let us study them to new depths. tiny.cc/t495101
Glycosphingolipids in cell identity: Biosynthesis, functions, and emerging tools
Cell fate is shaped by external cues and intrinsic cellular states. While supracellular signals, such as growth factors, provide instructive guidance, emerging evidence highlights the role of cell-aut...
tiny.cc
Very happy to share our work on Ether lipid remodeling and ferroptosis. This was a very fruitful collaboration with @harayamajrlab.bsky.social . Many thanks to @giodang.bsky.social for the support and guidance, and to Howard Riezman, where part of this story began. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ether lipid remodeling during neuronal differentiation prevents ferroptosis
Ferroptosis is a form of cell death driven by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, with specific lipid species playing key roles in modulating susceptibility. Among these, ether lipids have shown conflicting effects, being linked to both protection and sensitization. Here, we dissect the relationship between lipid structure and ferroptosis sensitivity and explain how ether lipids exert context-dependent effects. Ether lipids can promote ferroptosis through a metabolic bias towards the accumulation of polyunsaturated acyl chains and ethanolamine head groups, whereas this pro-ferroptotic tendency is counterbalanced by the anti-ferroptotic vinyl ether moiety introduced by plasmanylethanolamine desaturase 1. We show that this protective effect is critical for preventing ferroptosis in hiPSC-derived neurons, which accumulate otherwise pro-ferroptotic ether lipids during differentiation. This effect is not solely due to its antioxidant properties but also stems from the reprogramming of mitochondrial respiration. The lack of vinyl ether bonds leads to multiple mitochondrial defects, including increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS), lower membrane potential, and abnormal cristae structures. These findings indicate that vinyl ether bonds in ether lipids offer dual ferroptosis resistance by scavenging ROS and minimizing its production at the mitochondrial level. The disruption of this system in Caenorhabditis elegans leads to iron-induced death and impaired motility. Thus, our study reveals ether lipid structural remodeling as a key regulator of ferroptosis sensitivity in neurons. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, AS 647/1-1 Agencia Estatal de Investigación, PID2023-146930NB-I00 Japan Science and Technology Agency, JPMJER2101, JPMJFR230H, JPMJND2305, 25H01425, 25H01426, JPMJAP2505 National Research Agency French government, ANR-25-CE44-1525 Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)-Spain, PID2021-123336NB-C21, PID2024-158644NB-C21 Swiss National Science Foundation, 185898, 184949 CNRS/Inserm ATIP-Avenir, ANR-15-IDEX-01
biorxiv.org
Now out in its final form in @jacs.acspublications.org: Reaction pathways & photoreaction yields of bifunctional lipid probes. The numbers that explain why we spend so much time optimizing protocols for cellular assays. 😉 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Bifunctional Lipid–Protein Cross-linking Efficiency and Reaction Products
Bifunctional diazirine lipids are versatile tools for mapping protein–lipid interactions and cellular localization by photo-cross-linking. Yet, the cross-linking efficiency of these probes has not bee...
pubs.acs.org
André Nadler@nadlerlab.bsky.social · 7mo agoIt's always important to carefully characterize the reactivity of your favorite tools to optimize applications. We teamed up with Carla Kirschbaum and Carol V. Robinson to map photolysis reaction pathways of bifunctional lipids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It’s incredibly hard to study lipids in biological membranes on the nanoscale. You need near-perfect information on both membrane ultrastructure and lipid density. Lipid-CLEM, now out in @natcellbio.nature.com brought to you by @mathilda95.bsky.social changes that: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
So glad to see this one out. Insane work.
Mathilda Lennartz@mathilda95.bsky.social · 5mo agoI am extremely excited that my first first-author paper from my PhD is finally out 😆!! We developed a new CLEM workflow to measure lipid densities at the nanoscale. So if you are into lipids and super-resolution imaging approaches, this one is for you: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our paper on The Lipid Interactome is now published, and the database is open: lipidinteractome.org @ohsummi.bsky.social @ohsunews.bsky.social @nadlerlab.bsky.social @jeremybaskin.bsky.social Please RT to spread the word. doi.org/10.1093/bioi...
The Lipid Interactome: an interactive and open access platform for exploring cellular lipid–protein interactions
AbstractSummary. Lipid–protein interactions play essential roles in cellular signaling and membrane dynamics, yet their systematic characterization has lon
doi.org
Amazing story. Congrats!
Omaya Dudin 𓂆 ¦🍉¦🦠¦🔬¦@dudinlab.bsky.social · 6mo agoA 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma ▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC #ProtistsOnSky
Methods should be used as widely as possible, so here is our detailed lipid imaging protocol, written with @martinba99.bsky.social and Chia-Yi (Christine) Chou authors.elsevier.com/a/1mU4XHRzCb... in Methods in Enzymology. Everything you need to know to do it yourself is in there -
It's always important to carefully characterize the reactivity of your favorite tools to optimize applications. We teamed up with Carla Kirschbaum and Carol V. Robinson to map photolysis reaction pathways of bifunctional lipids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
We have several Master’s thesis projects available in the D’Angelo lab, spanning different areas of lipid biology/biochemistry. If you know someone who might be interested, we’d really appreciate you sharing this. #lipidtime www.epfl.ch/labs/dangelo...
Master Projects
DANGELOLAB
epfl.ch
With Byung Ho Lee and Kana Fuji as first/lead authors, @anne-grapin.bsky.social group, @utokyoofficial.bsky.social, Inst. of Physics of Academia Sinica, & @igbmc.bsky.social found the shape of lumens in the developing pancreas is controlled by pressure & proliferation. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...
Engineering the development of the pancreas
Researchers found that the shape of the fluid-filled cavities in the developing pancreas is controlled by pressure and the rate cells divide.
mpi-cbg.de
Congrats @mikelangelipid.bsky.social and @olzmannlab.bsky.social ! Amazing story and findings.
James Olzmann@olzmannlab.bsky.social · 10mo agoExcited to share our study out in @natcellbio.nature.com! Led by @mikelangelipid.bsky.social, we identify the first #LipidDroplet lipid quality control pathway: LD-localized FSP1 protects stored lipids from oxidative damage and prevents LD-initiated #ferroptosis. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
Lipid imaging on the cover of @nature.com! Great times for lipid cell biology indeed. And a fantastic recognition of all the hard work by the team, especially Juan M. Iglesias-Artola and Kristin Böhlig (who made the cover). Link to article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🌶️ Lipids bring the heat 🔥 Lipids don’t just shape membranes, they influence cellular metabolism. We show that tuning lipidome composition strongly alters metabolic heat flow in the minimal cell JCVI-Syn3B 🦠 Fantastic collaboration with Karim Fahmy’s lab (HZDR) 🎉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Metabolic heat flow from the minimal cell JCVI-Syn3B reveals the lipidome-dependence of growth and metabolism
The cell membrane facilitates interactions with the environment and serves as an organizational platform for coordinating cellular processes, with lipids playing a central role in determining membrane...
biorxiv.org
So honored to be awarded the ERC Starting Grant! I am very grateful for this support and looking forward to more exciting #lipidtime 🥳 Also, we will have positions available next year. So stay tuned!
European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · 11mo ago📣 The ERC Starting Grant call results are out! Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025! ➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh #FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope
We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)
Happy to share our work on uMAIA, a framework for building metabolomic atlases from mass spectrometry imaging. With uMAIA, we mapped the lipidome of zebrafish development, uncovering spatially organized metabolic programs . www.nature.com/articles/s41... #developmentalbiology #MSI #lipidtime
Unified mass imaging maps the lipidome of vertebrate development
Nature Methods - uMAIA is an analytical framework designed to enable the construction of metabolic atlases at high resolution using mass spectrometry imaging data.
nature.com
Out today in @nature.com: Together with the Honigmann, Shevchenko, Drobot and Hof labs, we present a general workflow for imaging the localization and transport of individual lipids in cells and mapping their metabolism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Quite a week for #lipidtime: phenomenal study using bifunctional lipid probes to quantify intracellular lipid transport from @nadlerlab.bsky.social and colleagues is now out @nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Quantitative imaging of lipid transport in mammalian cells - Nature
Directional, non-vesicular lipid transport is responsible for fast, species-selective lipid sorting into organelle membranes.
nature.com
We are hiring! If you are looking for a postdoc position and you are interested in signaling lipids and proteomics, come join us in beautiful Switzerland! More information on www.epfl.ch/labs/gr-schu...
Open positions
GR-SCHUHMACHER
epfl.ch
The world is small... Randomly found out that @mikelangelipid.bsky.social and I are both in Osaka, so we met up for some drinks and #lipidtime talk.
Think biosensors that give absolute measurement values! So happy this is out :) congrats to everyone involved, especially @sascha-kuhn.bsky.social and @nadlerlab.bsky.social
André Nadler@nadlerlab.bsky.social · last yr.Meet GEQO: Genetically-encoded biosensors for absolute small-molecule quantification in single cells brought to you by @sascha-kuhn.bsky.social. For simple absolute quantification of your favourite small molecule or ion, head on over to @bioarxiv and read our new preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Why are biological membranes asymmetric, with different lipids in the two bilayer leaflets? Discovered in the 70s, lipid asymmetry is linked to many cellular processes, but why the cell needs it is largely unclear. @pavelbarahtjan.bsky.social addresses this question: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Meet GEQO: Genetically-encoded biosensors for absolute small-molecule quantification in single cells brought to you by @sascha-kuhn.bsky.social. For simple absolute quantification of your favourite small molecule or ion, head on over to @bioarxiv and read our new preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...