Cenk Gurdap

Cells come in many shapes and sizes, with diverse physiological functions. But how do #organelles and their interaction networks remodel during #differentiation of stem cells into different cell types? Here’s what we discovered about neuronal differentiation: 1/13

Happy new year! I've so enjoyed the end-of-year lists of people's favorite papers from 2025, so I made a list of 16 #lipidtime studies from 2025 that I found interesting. Here they are in no particular order (please add more if you would like!), and here's to much more exciting science in 2026! 🧪

Long-term funding to SciLifeLab researchers: “a huge boost and game-changer to starting a lab” SciLifeLab researchers Maliheh Mehrshad and Camilla Engblom are appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows, and receive five-year basic research grants.

SciLifeLab researchers Maliheh Mehrshad (SLU) and Camilla Engblom (@ki.se) appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows ↓ 🧪

“This program gives researchers the chance to pursue high-risk, high-gain research ideas” – @mehrshmali.bsky.social

Q&A ↓
www.scilifelab.se/news/long-te...

@kawresearch.bsky.social

In fierce competition, 12 projects have now been selected in SSF’s call for proposals “Instrument, technology and method development”. The grants concern the development of new tools and methods that will enable scientific and technological breakthroughs. strategiska.se/en/press-rel...

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

Excited 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...

Heart ‘blueprint’ made openly available in unique resource A detailed map of the developing human heart, showing different groups of cells and how they interact in fetal heart development, have been published by a team led by SciLifeLab and KTH Royal Institut...

Heart ‘blueprint’ made openly available in unique resource 🧪

A detailed map showing how different groups of cells are arranged and how they interact in fetal #HeartDevelopment, now published by SciLifeLab and KTH researchers. ↓
www.scilifelab.se/news/cellula...

#OpenAccess #SpatialTranscriptomics

🧠 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/...

Tenure-track Position in Biophysics at Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Physics Location: Pittsburgh, PA Open Date: Sep 19, 2025 Description The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics. The appointment is intended to be at the Assistant Professor level, but exceptional candidates at a higher level may also be considered. We seek outstanding candidates with a strong record in cellular and subcellular biophysics. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, uncovering how key characteristics of living systems arise from the interplay between supramolecular cellular structures, how the emergent cellular circuitry defines goals and enables robust decision making, and how metabolic resources are allocated. This encompasses understanding of how information is learned, stored, transduced, and processed across subcellular structures. Applicants with theoretical, data science, or experimental backgrounds within biological physics are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidate will strengthen and extend research programs of current biophysics faculty in the Department of Physics and collaborate with broader life science activities across many departments at CMU and the wider Pittsburgh area. More details on Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/174360

I am super excited to announce that we have a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics open in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon! 🧪

Interfolio link: apply.interfolio.com/174360

PLEASE, share widely across the blue skies!

Let me briefly explain what we're looking for:

1/10

Cell Physics community is missing Jochen Guck deeply.. He was a very kind and generous person, one of the most creative minds, and always ready to help everyone in the field.. He inspired many of us.. He will always be missed..

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...

So flattering! Thanks @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social for this deeply meaningful award! All credit goes to my lab members and collaborators.
@scilifelab.se @ki.se

Leaflet-specific phospholipid imaging using genetically encoded proximity sensors - Nature Chemical Biology An approach combining bioorthogonal chemistry with genetically encoded fluorogen-activating proteins enables subcellular imaging of phospholipids and glycans, as well as the visualization of lipid tra...

Very excited to share new work out today in @natchembio.nature.com on a new approach - FACES - for selectively imaging of phospholipids and other biomolecules at spatial resolutions down to individual membrane leaflets (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Previous preprint is now published in RSC Chemical Biology.
If you are interested in plasma membrane labeling, see the paper! 👇
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

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...

EBSA 2025 just started - please make sure to stop by the poster of Shahinez Hanna-Elias who is presenting our work on "High-Throughput, Multiparametric Platform for Screening Homophilic Receptors in Host-Virus Binding" tomorrow between 12:15 - 14:45 in the category "Cellular Biophysics in Diseases"

Lysophosphatidylcholines are elevated after selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor exposure during neural differentiation and correlate with early neurodevelopmental symptoms Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are often prescribed during pregnancy. Yet, epidemiological studies associate in-utero SSRI exposure with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism a...

📢 Happy to share our latest preprint investigating how prenatal #SSRI exposure may effect early #neurodevelopment by inducing #metabolic changes in iPSC-derived neural cells 🧠 and human cord-blood samples 🧪 tinyurl.com/y3n4amz6

Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip Size and shape are critical discriminators between molecular species and states. We describe a microchip-based high-throughput imaging approach offering rapid and precise determination of molecular pr...

An amazing new enabling technology. Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip. Couldn't be prouder of our friend Madhavi Krishnan of @ox.ac.uk this was and is one among the must fun collaborations I ever had. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

biomembrane-days-2025.mpikg.mpg.de

📢 Registration is open for the Biomembrane Days 2025!
🔗 biomembrane-days-2025.mpikg.mpg.de

A top-notch lineup of speakers, 120 posters, 200 scientists.
📜Submit an abstract by July 14
🏆3 Poster prizes
⚠️Limited spots-previous events were fully booked!

#BiomembraneDays2025 #Biophysics #CellMembranes

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...

Cell membranes sustain phospholipid imbalance via cholesterol asymmetry This work challenges a major assumption in cell biology by showing that lipid bilayers can have drastically different phospholipid abundances between their two leaflets. This lipid abundance asymmetry...

Groundbreaking study in Cell from @leventallab.bsky.social: phospholipid asymmetry is a defining feature of the plasma membrane and cholesterol fills the holes — major implications for how this membrane works. A #lipidtime must-read! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Check it out to learn how easily you can measure membrane fluidity of your cells 👇🏻

A roadmap toward the synthesis of life The synthesis of life from non-living matter has captivated and divided scientists for centuries. This bold goal aims at unraveling the fundamental pr…

It’s out!😃
2 years ago, I organized a workshop with @WebersGroup and @KGoepfrich on how to build Life.
We discussed with leading scientists by day and wrote up our discussions in the eves.

The "Roadmap Towards Synthetic Life" is now out in Chem!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Imaging Single Particle Profiler to Study Nanoscale Bioparticles Using Conventional Confocal Microscopy Single particle profiling (SPP) is a unique methodology to study nanoscale bioparticles such as liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, extracellular vesicles, and lipoproteins in a single particle and high t...

New paper out💥 in Nano Letters @pubs.acs.org
High throughput single particle profiler with simple confocal imaging. We used this new method to study protein-lipid interactions, drug membrane interactions and biophysics of small particles from human donors: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...