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Membrane contact sites, or MCSs, represent the ultimate intracellular duct tape — binding organelles together within eukaryotic cells to promote growth. Enabled by tethering proteins, MCSs are a coordinating nexus that fosters intermembrane exchange and signaling.

“The cell, too, has a geography, and its reactions occur in colloidal apparatus, of which the form, and the catalytic activity of its manifold surfaces, must efficiently contribute to the due guidance of chemical reactions.”  — Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1929)

As conduits for lipid and small metabolite transfer between organelle membranes, MCSs are key regulators of metabolism. As structural elements linking intracellular membranes, MCSs control membrane organization and protect against membrane stresses. As platforms for important signaling receptors, MCSs initiate cellular responses to regulatory or environmental cues.

The recognition of MCSs as key regulators of cell growth is underscored by new discoveries of MCS function in cellular disease and infection.

Keywords: Membrane contact sites, membrane stress, mitochondrial regulation, nonvesicular transport, lipid transport, membrane structure, lipid metabolism, lipid regulation.

Who should attend: Molecular cell biologists and membrane biochemists who marvel at how membrane dynamics regulates metabolic function and organelle organization.

Theme song: by Lionel Richie

This session is powered by the unsung heroes of membrane and lipid research.

Membrane contact sites

Regulation of lipid transfer and metabolism at membrane contact sites

 

Hongyuan Yang, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Jen Liou (chair), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Alexandre Toulmay, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Arash Bashirullah, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Membrane signaling at membrane contact sites

Thomas Simmen (chair), University of Alberta

Jay Tan, University of Pittsburgh

Alissa Weaver, Vanderbilt University

Chi-Lun Chang, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Specialized membrane contact site functions

Isabelle Derré, University of Virginia

Aaron Neiman, Stony Brook University

Christopher T. Beh (chair), Simon Fraser University