Leaders: Professor Andrew Murphy and Dr Graeme Lancaster
This project will determine the lipidomes of haematopoietic stem cells and how they change as these cells mature down specific lineages to form mature immune cells. Given we have identified a very unique signature in blood neutrophils (i.e. an enrichment in ether lipids), this project will first explore what happens when we delete an enzyme called glyceronephosphate O-acyltransferase (GNPAT — rate limiting enzyme for the production of ether lipids) specifically in stem cells and explore the neutrophil maturation pathway in the bone marrow and blood. We will also explore some functional properties of neutrophils such as inflammatory signalling in response to bacterial stimuli and phagocytosis. These experiments will be conducted in mice using flow cytometry to quantify cell population and examine the functional readouts.