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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

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 out on bioRxiv - "Selenium reduction of ubiquinone via SQOR suppresses ferroptosis"

March 31, 2023

Congrats to Alyssa, Melissa, Zhipeng and team on the publication of our methods paper "Protocol for performing pooled CRISPR-Cas9 loss-of-function screens" in STAR Protocols!

December 15, 2022
Congrats to Joe Hendricks and team on the publication of our manuscript "Identification of structurally diverse FSP1 inhibitors that sensitize cancer cells to ferroptosis" on bioRxiv!


November 30, 2022
Congrats to Sarah Siti Nur Morris and team on the publication of her manuscript "A genome-wide CRISPR screen implicates plasma membrane asymmetry in exogenous C6-ceramide toxicity" in Biology Open!

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RECENT ARTICLES

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Li et al.
Nature Chem Biol 2022

Bersuker et al.

Nature 2019

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Olzmann & Carvalho

Nature Rev Mol Cell Biol 2019

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Reveals selenium metabolism and ribosome stalling as ferroptosis vulnerabilities

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

Review of lipid droplet biogenesis and cellular functions

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