In April 2013, Dr. Gwendolyn Barceló-Coblijn (Principal Investigator) obtained a "Miguel Servet" contract and founded “Lipids in Human Pathology” (IdISBa). Since then, the group has grown considerably, counting on an international team of lab technicians, predoctoral students and postdoctoral scientists. Our main interest is to understand the function of membrane lipids in pathological processes, particularly in colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis).
Lipids in Human Pathology back in 2014
Research interests
1) Role of membrane lipids, particularly phospholipids, in the tumorigenic process in colorectal cancer.
2) Obtain the necessary lipidomic data for the development of new diagnostic and treatment tools.
3) Role of the gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease.
Results and accomplishments
Using one of the most advanced techniques in imaging mass spectrometry, MALDI-IMS, we aim to understand cell malignization and identify new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. These studies are currently being developed using human samples and colon organoids models. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Group of Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry of the University of the Basque Country, we have been able to obtain MALDI images at 10 and 5 micrometers of lateral resolution (Garate et al. 2015). It is clear from the results that each cell type has its own and unique lipid profile and thus we aim to understand the regulatory mechanisms underlying this specificity and its role in cell homeostasis and pathology.
doi: 10.1007/s00216-015-8673-7
In Bestard-Escalas et al. 2016 and Lopez et al. 2018 we published that the colonocyte lipidome changes during differentiation in a highly synchronized manner. In particular, phosphatidylinositol and pe-plasmalogens were the membrane lipid classes showing the most gradual distribution.
BBA- Molecular and Cellular Biology of Lipids, doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2016.09.013. and doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2018.04.017