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Talk by Arun Radhakrishnan

Title: "Cellular signaling by cholesterol"
Occasion: SFB - Seminar
Start: 14.07.2025 4:15 pm
Location: CellNanOs, 38/201

About the speaker: Prof. Dr. Arun Radhakrishnan conducts research at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, USA

Cholesterol is a critical signaling lipid that controls many cellular signaling pathways, including those determining lipid homeostasis and cell growth. However, cholesterol constitutes almost one half of all lipids in the plasma membranes (PMs) of animal cells and 5 – 25% of lipids in other cellular organelle membranes. How can an abundant bulk lipid like cholesterol exert switch-like control over signaling pathways? The answer lies in the organization of cholesterol in membranes. Most of the cholesterol in membranes is sequestered by other membrane lipids and the transmembrane domains of proteins, rendering it inaccessible to interact with signaling proteins. Cholesterol in excess of such sequestration constitutes a pool that is referred to as “accessible cholesterol”. This pool of accessible cholesterol plays a crucial role in maintaining lipid homeostasis and controlling cell growth. In this presentation, I will describe recent advances in understanding cholesterol accessibility in cellular signaling contexts.