SCAN:Good and bad lipids

ITQB- Seminar

Title: Good and bad lipids

Speaker: Eurico Melo

From: Head of Microheterogeneous Systems

Abstract: Are there good and bad biological lipids? Come to this SCAN to learn why all of them, even those that seem well behaved and sympathetic, have a nasty penchant. They almost never do what the honest researcher expects from them. When most needed, they tease us by not stacking in regular layers as said in the textbooks. Certain biological lipid classes have preferences between them. For example sphingomyelin does not dissimulate its preference for cholesterol, but the malicious POPC (the most common lipid in living organisms) that seems so indifferent, has two faces, each smiling to a different crowd. Nothing good is to expect from ceramides, they are messengers of cell death. In the stratum corneum, where they play the main role, ceramides dictatorially rule the other lipids excluding those they don’t like, separating friends and building ordered structures that have defied the researcher’s imagination since half a century.
The organization and function of biological lipids is, still today, challenging and full of surprises. In that sense, lipids are good company for the patient and concerned researcher