Lingwood Lab
Welcome to the Lingwood Laboratory in the Molecular Structure & Function Program
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Our research is concerned with the function of glycolipids in eukaryotic cells. Despite the extensive structural characterization of these sugar-lipid conjugates, analysis of their function is difficult due to their poor solubility in aqueous media.
The fact that no one gene encodes their synthesis and that organization of membrane glycolipids within microdomains or 'rafts', is dependent on both their carbohydrate and lipid composition, further complicates functional studies. Plasma membrane glycolipids often provide the interface between pathogenic microbes and/or their products and host cells, making glycolipid-based therapeutics a possible mode of infection control. In turn, microbial glycolipid-binding ligands provide probes to study glycolipid function.