Research lines

• Understanding the biogenesis and consumption of lipid droplets: decoding the metabolic syndrome?

  Directed by Albert Pol 

  Accumulation of lipid droplets is the cellular hallmark of a plethora of prevalent diseases. Understanding the life-cycle of these organelles will uncover new approaches for intervention. 

• Lipid droplets as innate immunity hubs

  Directed by Albert Pol 

  We recently described a new antimicrobial function of cytosolic lipid droplets in the cellular defence against intracellular infections. We are characterizing the proteins and lipids forming these defensive lipid droplets and the innate immunity functions of these organelles. 

• Lipid droplets role in inflammation

  Directed by Marta Bosch 

  Lipid droplets are accumulated in multiple inflammatory processes. With especial attention to the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NFkB, we are using in vivo and in vitro models to understand how lipid droplets modulate inflammatory signalling, with relevance for multiple diseases such as obesity, stroke or liver steatosis. 

• Lipid droplets, a new cancer hallmark

  Directed by Albert Pol 

  Lipid droplets are a hallmark of multiple cancers, our research focuses in understanding their role in liquid tumours to design novel therapeutic approaches to improve cancer treatment. 

• Unravelling the role of lipid droplets in epithelial regeneration and infections

  Directed by Albert Herms 

  Lipid droplets are very well characterized in liver, muscle or adipose tissue, but little is known about their role in epithelia. We are interested in exploring their possible function during inflammatory processes triggered by regeneration or bacterial infections in epithelial tissues (i.e. uropathogenic bacteria in the bladder epithelium). 

• Understanding mutant selection and early tumorigenesis in ageing epithelia

  Directed by Albert Herms 

  Epithelial tissues accumulate mutations as we age. We are applying mouse and human epithelioids, advanced primary self-maintaining 3D cultures that we recently developed, to study how somatic mutations colonize the tissues, compete with each other, and the external and internal factors that modulate mutant selection. We are also interested in the relationship between somatic mutant clones and early tumorigenesis with the aim to understand how epithelial tumours are formed.