Gerry Hammond University of Pittsburgh, USA

Dr. Gerry Hammond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His lab studies the role of key lipids is integrating membrane function, with a particular focus on the inositol lipids. The cytosolic face of eukaryotic membranes are bustling hubs for vesicular, small solute and information traffic. This traffic is essential to maintain the integrated function of each organelle with the wider cell. Its disruption occurs in diseases from cancer to the common cold. For each type of trafficking process, protein complexes execute the traffic, but typically rely on specific lipids - usually an inositol lipid - to function correctly. In Gerry’s lab, the team studies how inositol lipid metabolism is coupled to these disparate trafficking steps. Membrane contact sites between the ER and other organelles are increasingly recognized as central to this coupling, so much of the lab’s recent attention has focused on the structure/function of membrane contact sites with respect to inositol lipid metabolism.