Executive Summary

TOWARDS A EUROPEAN LIPIDOMICS PROGRAM

Plan for Using and Disseminating Knowledge

(publishable version)

Final Report

2005-2007

Period covered: from 1/1/05 to 1/7/07 Date of preparation: 1/1/08

Start date of project: 1/1/05 Duration: 2.5 years

Project coordinator name: Prof. Gerrit van Meer

Project coordinator organisation name: Utrecht University

Dates	Type	Type of Audience	Countries	Size of Audience	Partner involved
2005	Paper 1	General	World		1,12
	Paper 2	Basic scientists			12
	Paper 3	General			12
	Paper 4	Basic scientists			1
2006	Paper 5	General			2
2007	Paper 6	General			1,2,7
	Paper 7	General			1-14
2005	Paper 8	General			12
2006	Paper 9	Lipidol/industry			5
	Paper 10	Lipidol/industry			1
	Paper 11	Lipidol/industry			12
	Paper 12	Lipidol/industry			12
	Paper 13	Lipidol/industry			1
2008	Paper 14	Lipidol/clinicians			1-3,7,12
	Paper 15	Basic Scientists			1,3
2006	Paper 16	Lipidol/clinicians			1
2005	Interview 17	General scientist	Europe		1,12
2006	Interview 18	General	World		12
2005	Flyer	General	Europe		1
2005	Advertorial	European Parliament	Europe		1-14
2007	Survey	General			2

Summary
Over 2005 and 2006, the specific support action 'the European Lipidomics Initiative (ELIfe)' has resulted in four successful workshops where stakeholders from basic science, industry and medicine met to discuss cell biological, technological, industrial and clinical aspects of lipidomics. In addition, ELIfe contributed lipidomics sessions to four networking meetings, one on life sciences, one on the bioscience of lipids and two industrial lipid meetings. These workshops and meetings culminated in the concluding general meeting in October 2006, attended by a broad audience of 250 scientists. At the occasion of this meeting a special journal issue was published on 'Lipidome and Disease' [16]. The results of the the specific support action were reported in a series of policy papers in the scientific literature [4-6, 8-13], and a policy briefing on lipidomics and health of the European Science Foundation [14]. In addition, ELIfe contributed to a number of technical papers on lipid classification and data handling [1-3] and to a 500 page document entitled 'Enabling technologies for studying the genome, proteome and cytome of the lipidome.' [7]. This document will be presented on the Lipidomics Expertise Wiki Portal (LEP-Wiki): http://www-cgi.uni-regensburg.de/Klinik/Klinische_Chemie/lipidWiki/, to allow a direct interaction with the scientists in the field. Interviews with ELIfe members appeared in various journals [17,18].

A survey was prepared based on registrations in the Lipidomics Expertise Platform www.lipidomics-expertise.de with the purpose of identifying stakeholders and providing insight in the available expertise, which can be used for contacting specific centers for collaboration. A 260 page document entitled 'Lipid droplets and lamellar bodies as dynamic organelles connecting influx, efflux, and storage of lipids: Translational research towards human disease' was prepared as the basis for a grant proposal under FP7 by a number of ELIfe members plus other scientists. This proposal 'LipidomicNet' was recently selected for funding. A EuroCore theme proposal under the name EuroMembrane [15] has been accepted by the European Science Foundation and a call for applications is expected for early 2008.

In summary, we believe that the European Lipidomics Initiative has created many opportunities for crossover between basic science and medical and commercial applications, and that it has inspired stakeholders to seek contact and establish strategic alliances. Because national funding agencies and policy makers value the European dimension, the project will impact on both the European and the national level in shaping policies and research activities, both in applied and fundamental research. One such field is that of nutrition and health. Technology development will allow more detailed analyses of lipid patterns in diseased and healthy persons, which will drive discussions with the food industry concerning the potential positive and negative effects of different types of (lipid) nutrition on human health with new health policies drawn up as a result.
References
[1.a] Fahy, E., S. Subramaniam, H.A. Brown, C.K. Glass, A.H. Merrill, Jr., R.C. Murphy, C.R. Raetz, D.W. Russell, Y. Seyama, W. Shaw, T. Shimizu, F. Spener, G. van Meer, M.S. Vannieuwenhze, S.H. White, J. Witztum, and E.A. Dennis (2005) A comprehensive classification system for lipids. J. Lipid Res. 46, 839-861.

[1.b] idem: (2005) Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 107, 337-364

[2] Varfolomeyev, S., Efremenko, E., Beletskaya, I., Bertini, I., Blackburn, G.M., Bogdanov, A., Cunin, R., Eichler, J., Galaev, I., Gladyshev, V., O’Hagan, D., Haertle, T., Jarv, J., Karyakin, A., Kurochkin, I., Mikolajczyk, M., Poroikov, V., Sakharov, I., Spener, F., Voyer, N., and Wild, J. (2005) Postgenomic chemistry (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure Appl. Chem. 77, 1641–1654.

[3] Spener F. (2005) Lipidomics and consequences: a new classification system for lipids. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 107, 277-278.

[4] van Meer, G. (2005) Cellular Lipidomics. EMBO J. 24, 3159-3165.

[5] Schmitz, G., Liebisch, G., Langmann, T. (2006) Lipidomic strategies to study structural and functional defects of ABC-transporters in cellular lipid trafficking. FEBS Lett. 580, 5597-5610.

[6] van Meer, G., Leeflang, B.R., Liebisch, G,. Schmitz, G., Goni, F.M. (2007) The European lipidomics initiative: enabling technologies. Methods Enzymol. 2007;432, 213-232.

[7] White paper on 'Enabling technologies for studying the genome, proteome and cytome of the lipidome.' to be published in Wikipedia format on the LEP website.

[8] Spener F. (2005) European Commission funds lipidomics project. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 107, 1-2.

[9] Griffiths, W. (2006) Why steroidomics in brain? Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 108, 707–708.

[10] Helms, B. (2006) Host-Pathogen interactions: Lipids grease the way. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 108, 895–897.

[11] Spener, F., Kohlwein, S.D., and Schmitz, G. (2006) Lipid droplets and lamellar bodies – from innocent bystanders to prime targets of lipid research for combating human diseases. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 108, 541-543.

[12] Spener, F., Zechner, R., and Borlak, J. (2006) Is lipotoxicity an oxymoron? Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 108, 625-627.

[13] van Meer, G. (2006) How do sphingolipids and lipid rafts relate to pathology? Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 108, 799–801.

[14] van Meer, G. and Spener, F. (Co-Chairs), Leeflang, B.R. (Secretary), Beisiegel, U., Bougnoux, P., Goñi, F., Griffiths, W., Hartmann, T., Helms, B., Hoekstra, D., Julià-Sapé, M., Larijani, B., Moschetta, A., Mouritsen, O.G., Norata, G.D., Payrastre, B., Record, M., Schmitz, G., Simons, K., Tselepis, A., Vaz, W., Vigh, L., Voelker, D.R., Wakelam, M.J.O., and Wanders, R.J.A. (2008) Structural Medicine II: the Importance of Lipidomics for Health and Disease, European Science Foundation Policy Briefing, in press.

[15] van Meer, G. (main proposer), Malhotra, V., Marsh, M., Simons, K., van der Goot, G., Warren, G. (2008) Membrane Architecture and Dynamics (EuroMEMBRANE), EuroCORE theme proposal. Call to be launched in spring 2008.

[16] Helms, B. and van Meer, G., eds. (2006) Lipidome and Disease. FEBS Letters Special Issue. FEBS Lett. 580, 5429-5610.

[17] Winckler, L. (2005) Lipidomics. Laborjournal 12, 20-23.

[18] Hillyer, C.D. (2006) Lipidomics: taking it one lipid at a time. Inform 17, 206-208.
Other:

ELIfe flyer

Advertorial in the Parliament Magazine, issue 210 of October 3, 2005, entitled "Fat is Bad?"
Survey:

The data in the Lipidomics Expertise Platform database have been analyzed and the survey will be published on the website (see Annex 2 of the reports).

LSSG-CT-2004-013032

ELIfe

European Lipidomics Initiative: Shaping the Life Sciences

Instrument: Specific Support Action

Thematic Priority: FP6-2003-LIFESCIHEALTH-II; LSH-2003-3-6