Lipids are arguably the least understood of cellular biomolecules and an unappreciated subset of the metabolome. They form complex structural aggregates, or micro/nano domains, that are often refractory to classical biochemical and morphological analysis. These micro/nano domains assemble into functional networks, or biomembranes. The tools for lipidomics are underdeveloped in the “omics” era and the first comprehensive classification of lipids was proposed only in 2005. The richness of the lipid repertoires, currently exceeding 100'000 species, is comparable to that of genes and proteins. In recent years, lipidomics has emerged, greatly benefiting from the strategies and informatics of genomics and especially from the progress in high-resolution chromatography and mass spectrometry. Like genes and proteins, lipids are essential components of the cell and, given their complexity, a full understanding of their roles in the life of a cell, an organ and an organism requires a systems approach.

LipidX tackles six fundamental questions about lipids: 1) How are lipids distributed in cells; 2) How do they generate microdomains; 3) What functions do lipids play and which of these require microdomains; 4) How do microdomains assemble and dissociate 5) How do lipids contribute to intracellular vesicular trafficking and signaling between cells 6) What are the roles of lipids in disease.
SBOB brings together scientists from the fields of Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Medicine and Chemistry to tackle these questions.

LipidX is divided in 5 subprojects: 1) Genetic control of lipid profiles and function, 2) Lipid localization and membrane trafficking, 3) From cells to tissues to organisms, 4) Modeling of lipid metabolic pathways and membrane domains, 5) Lipids and disease, in particular infectious diseases and metabolic syndromes. Approaches include lipid and gene profiling, RNAi screening, modeling of cellular compartments and their dynamics, modeling of lipid metabolic pathways and membrane domains, analysis of developmental programs and genetics of model organisms. LipidX focuses on the integration of the different datasets and the achievement of a dynamic workflow between different subprojects in order to obtain a comprehensive view of the biology of lipids and their interactions with other cellular networks, including metabolic systems, transcriptional, signaling and developmental networks, and protein interactomes.