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Kai Simons

LIPOTYPE | Former Director at MPI-CBG

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  • Basic Research

     Lipidomics

  • Technology & Resources

     Lipidomics

  • Biomedical Research

    Diabetes

Project Description

Lipids are important building blocks of life. Their main function is to form the matrix of our cell membranes where they support a variety of functions essential for life. We have developed a shotgun mass spectrometry platform that now can analyse hundreds of lipids in only a few minutes with absolute quantification. This effective routine of shotgun lipidomics became possible by introducing a unique workflow that combined improved extraction protocols with cutting edge mass spectrometry and novel software. We have used this technology to analyze   blood cells and plasma with the aim to establish multi-parametric lipid signatures that measure health and disease including diabetes. Our working hypothesis is that blood lipidomes are generalized measures of metabolic status.

  • Collection of Lipid Center relevant Publications

    2018
    Simons K. How Can Omic Science be Improved? Proteomics. 2018 Mar;18(5-6):e1800039

    Mitroulis I, Ruppova K, Wang B, Chen LS, Grzybek M, Grinenko T, Eugster A, Troullinaki M, Palladini A, Kourtzelis I, Chatzigeorgiou A, Schlitzer A, Beyer M, Joosten LAB, Isermann B, Lesche M, Petzold A, Simons K, Henry I, Dahl A, Schultze JL, Wielockx B, Zamboni N, Mirtschink P, Coskun Ü, Hajishengallis G, Netea MG, Chavakis T. Modulation of Myelopoiesis Progenitors Is an Integral Component of Trained Immunity. Cell. 2018 Jan 11;172(1-2):147-161.e12

    2017
    Stefanko A, Thiede C, Ehninger G, Simons K, Grzybek M. Lipidomic approach for stratification of acute myeloid leukemia patients. PLoS One. 2017 Feb 16;12(2):e0168781

    Simons K. Coming to grips with cell surface polarity. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2017 May;18(5):278

    Sadowski T, Klose C, Gerl MJ, Wójcik-Maciejewicz A, Herzog R, Simons K, Reich A, Surma MA. Large-scale human skin lipidomics by quantitative, high-throughput shotgun mass spectrometry. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 7;7:43761

    Sezgin E, Azbazdar Y, Ng XW, Teh C, Simons K, Weidinger G, Wohland T, Eggeling C, Ozhan G. Binding of canonical Wnt ligands to their receptor complexes occurs in ordered plasma membrane environments. FEBS J. 2017 Aug;284(15):2513-2526

    Frahnow T, Osterhoff MA, Hornemann S, Kruse M, Surma MA, Klose C, Simons K, Pfeiffer AFH. Heritability and responses to high fat diet of plasma lipidomics in a twin study. Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 16;7(1):3750

    2016
    Ben Halima S, Mishra S, Raja KMP, Willem M, Baici A, Simons K, Brüstle O, Koch P, Haass C, Caflisch A, Rajendran L. Specific Inhibition of β-Secretase Processing of the Alzheimer Disease Amyloid Precursor Protein. Cell Rep. 2016 Mar 8;14(9):2127-2141

    Simons K. My Early Days with Ari Helenius: Detergents and Viruses. Traffic. 2016 Apr;17(4):305-7

    Simons K. Cell membranes: A subjective perspective. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2016 Oct;1858(10):2569-2572

    Kjellqvist S, Klose C, Surma MA, Hindy G, Mollet IG, Johansson A, Chavaux P, Gottfries J, Simons K, Melander O, Fernandez C. Identification of Shared and Unique Serum Lipid Profiles in Diabetes Mellitus and Myocardial Infarction. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016 Nov 29;5(12)

    Simons K, Coskun Ü. Membrane Lipid Galore. J Mol Biol. 2016 Dec 4;428(24 Pt A):4737-4738

    2015
    Kaszuba K, Grzybek M, Orłowski A, Danne R, Róg T, Simons K, Coskun Ü, Vattulainen I. N-Glycosylation as determinant of epidermal growth factor receptor conformation in membranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Apr 7;112(14):4334-9

    Sezgin E, Gutmann T, Buhl T, Dirkx R, Grzybek M, Coskun Ü, Solimena M, Simons K, Levental I, Schwille P. Adaptive lipid packing and bioactivity in membrane domains. PLoS One. 2015 Apr 23;10(4):e0123930

    Sáenz JP, Grosser D, Bradley AS, Lagny TJ, Lavrynenko O, Broda M, Simons K. Hopanoids as functional analogues of cholesterol in bacterial membranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Sep 22;112(38):11971-6

    Surma MA, Herzog R, Vasilj A, Klose C, Christinat N, Morin-Rivron D, Simons K, Masoodi M, Sampaio JL. An automated shotgun lipidomics platform for high throughput, comprehensive, and quantitative analysis of blood plasma intact lipids. Eur J Lipid Sci Technol. 2015 Oct;117(10):1540-1549

    Zurzolo C, Simons K. Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins: Membrane organization and transport. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2016 Apr;1858(4):632-9