€3.1 Millions in funding for new DFG research group on the role of heat treated dietary lipids

ZML Participates in New DFG Research Group on Heat-Treated Dietary Lipids

The Center for Membrane Biochemistry and Lipid Research (ZML) will participate in a new DFG research group investigating how heat-treated dietary fats (lipids) affect organisms and whether they can trigger evolutionary changes.

A new DFG research group led by Biology Professor Dr Klaus Reinhardt from Dresden University of Technology (TUD) is investigating this largely unexplored question. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing around 3.1 million euros in funding over four years. The group is being supported jointly with the Swiss National Science Foundation as part of the D-A-CH collaboration.

Cooking, frying and baking have been part of everyday life for humans for thousands of years. Heat treatment makes food easier to digest and alters its chemical properties. While the effects of heat-treated sugar and protein on humans are well established, little is yet known about the exact role of heated fats in our diet.

Dresden is a globally recognized hub for lipid research. A total of seven research groups from the disciplines of biology, food chemistry and molecular medicine at TUD and Dresden University Hospital are pooling their expertise in lipid research in this new project, in collaboration with a Swiss research team. The ZML contributes its expertise in membrane biochemistry and lipid research to this interdisciplinary research network.

The research group is investigating what happens to plant- or animal-based dietary fats during heat treatment, how these heat-altered molecules subsequently function, and what role they play in the evolution of organisms.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serves as the model organism. In particular, the short life cycle of these flies offers researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of different dietary fats over many generations. The research will focus in particular on the relationship between dietary fats and reproduction, as well as adaptations to dietary availability over many generations.

“Although the findings from the flies cannot be directly extrapolated to humans, many fundamental biological processes and lipid transport systems are conserved between flies and humans. We therefore also intend, in the long term, to investigate the potential significance of these findings for human nutrition and evolutionary history,” explains Dr Marko Brankatschk, Deputy Chair for Plant Cell and Molecular Biology at TU Dresden.

With this new research group, TU Dresden is strengthening its interdisciplinary research at the interface of life sciences, chemistry and medicine, while further expanding its international collaboration with Switzerland. The project also provides an opportunity to further strengthen Dresden’s position as an international center for interdisciplinary lipid research.

In addition to research, the group is also committed to engaging with the public. Plans include educational programs for schools designed to illustrate the connections between nutrition, chemistry, biology and evolution. In the future, an “Open Lab” is also to be established, where interested members of the public can bring in their own food samples and investigate, together with the researchers, the effects of their dietary fats on fruit flies.

We are looking forward to contributing our expertise in membrane biochemistry and lipid research to this exciting research initiative.

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Millions in funding for new DFG research group investigating the influence of heat-treated fats on evolution