{"id":9152,"date":"2017-02-14T10:25:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T09:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=9152"},"modified":"2024-03-22T13:35:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T12:35:39","slug":"1702-lipids-in-real-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Lipids in real time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We know much less about the way fat molecules \u2013 or lipids \u2013 behave in cells than we do about other molecules like proteins. A new chemical biology technique developed at EMBL and reported in the journal <em>PNAS<\/em> may be about to change that, as study author Carsten Schultz explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What did you do?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We took lipid molecules and made three small modifications. First, we added a chemical group called a caging group that prevents the lipid from interacting with other molecules. The bond between this group and the lipid can be broken using a flash of light, allowing us to \u2018uncage\u2019 the lipid at a precise moment and leave it free to interact. Second, we added a chemical group that becomes extremely reactive when exposed to light of a certain wavelength. Another, higher energy, flash of light was used to activate this group, causing it to react with the nearest molecule \u2013 in this case attaching the lipid to whatever protein it was interacting with. Third, we added a chemical group that made the lipid easier to study, allowing us to either extract the lipid and its attached protein for analysis, or add a fluorescent group to reveal its position in the cell. With these modifications, we could identify which proteins a lipid was interacting with at a given point in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why does it matter?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our technique makes it possible to study lipids in a whole living cell on timescales of only a few seconds. This has not been done before, and is crucial because most lipids in a cell have very short lifetimes. We can also study the way lipids are transported and broken down within the cell. In principle the same technique could be used to study many types of small molecules in cells, including pharmaceuticals, so there\u2019s great potential for further research and beneficial applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new technique developed at EMBL reveals the way fats interact with other molecules in cells<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":9162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[54,43,69,383],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-9152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-chemical-biology","tag-heidelberg","tag-methods","tag-schultz"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>A new technique developed at EMBL reveals the way fats interact with other molecules in cells<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Schultz Group","link_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/cbb\/schultz\/index.html"}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>H\u00f6glinger D\u00a0<em>et al.<\/em>\u00a0<em>PNAS<\/em><em>,\u00a0<\/em>published online 30 January 2017. DOI:10.1073\/pnas.1611096114<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.1611096114"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lipids in real time: EMBL\u2019s Carsten Schultz reports on new chemical biology technique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new technique developed at EMBL reveals the way in which fat molecules \u2013 or lipids \u2013 interact with other molecules in cells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lipids in real time: EMBL\u2019s Carsten Schultz reports on new chemical biology technique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new technique developed at EMBL reveals the way in which fat molecules \u2013 or lipids \u2013 interact with other molecules in cells\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-14T09:25:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-22T12:35:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/170214-lipids_ib-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edward Dadswell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Edward Dadswell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Edward Dadswell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d09d98139462e79513cfc92f6bcfaba7\"},\"headline\":\"Lipids in real time\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-14T09:25:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T12:35:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1702-lipids-in-real-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/170214-lipids_ib-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"chemical biology\",\"heidelberg\",\"methods\",\"schultz\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; 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