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Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms that govern organelle and lipid homeostasis in health and disease

The Olzmann research group employs a combination of systems biology, chemical biology, and cell biology strategies to elucidate the principles that regulate organelle biology and cellular lipid homeostasis. We are particularly interested in understanding the regulation and functions of neutral lipid storage organelles called lipid droplets. Dysregulation of lipid droplets and lipid metabolism has been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases, including prevalent metabolic diseases (e.g. obesity and fatty liver disease) and cancer. We are also interested in dissecting the cellular mechanisms that prevent lipotoxic damage, such as the accumulation of oxidatively damaged phospholipids during ferroptosis. Leveraging chemical-genetic approaches, we seek to define ferroptosis resistance mechanisms that can be therapeutically targeted as a strategy to treat therapy-resistant forms of cancer.

RECENT NEWS

August 4, 2023
New collaborative preprint with the Scott Dixon lab "A cell cycle-dependent ferroptosis sensitivity switch governed by EMP2" 

July 25, 2023
Congrats to Melissa Roberts and team on the publication of our manuscript "Parallel CRISPR-Cas9 screens identify mechanisms of PLIN2 and lipid droplet regulation" in Developmental Cell!

June 21, 2023

Congrats to Gergey Mousa, Emily Meymand, and Sydney Tomlinson on passing their qualifying exams!! PhD candidates!

May 12, 2023

Congrats to Joe Hendricks and team on the publication of our manuscript "Identification of structurally diverse FSP1 inhibitors that sensitize cancer cells to ferroptosis" in Cell Chemical Biology!

April 14, 2023
New collaborative preprint with Dohoon Kim's lab - "Selenium reduction of ubiquinone via SQOR suppresses ferroptosis"

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RECENT ARTICLES

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Li et al.
Nature Chem Biol 2022

Reveals selenium metabolism and ribosome stalling as ferroptosis vulnerabilities

Bersuker et al.

Nature 2019

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Identifies the CoQ oxidoreductase FSP1 as a powerful ferroptosis suppressor in cancer

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Hendricks et al.
Cell Chem Biol 2023

Identifies FSP1 inhibitors that sensitize cancer cells to ferroptosis

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