Grant: Project Grant

Cellular signaling, including that of immune cells, starts at the plasma membrane. Conventional understanding is that a receptor engaging a suitable ligand sends a signal across the membrane. This notion is increasingly regarded as being too simplistic. Eukaryotic cell membrane is a complex structure with intricate lipid composition and contains distinct lipid domains. This forms a basic platform for these protein receptors to function. Our previous work reveals that lipid alteration itself is capable of signaling. This capacity is perceived by the ancient cytoskeleton proteins. In this project, we aim to study how lipids can transduce the signal across the membrane, and how the lipid domains are used by protein receptor to organize and fine-tune the downstream effectors. This study will add fundamental knowledge to the ontogeny of modern immune receptors.