My current research focuses on manipulating the membrane lipid composition of S. cerevisiae using common technics of yeast genetics and genetic engineering. Orthogonal regulation mechanisms allow to modify the content of different essential membrane lipids individually in the same organism. Generated yeast strains represent a powerful tool for investigating how the composition of biological membranes and its physicochemical properties affect the function of cellular processes. Alterations in lipid compostion are analysed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and biophysical approaches. 

I use the power of yeast as an eukaryotic modell organism for studying how defined membrane compositions and the membrane's physical state affect ER associated folding of proteins such as trafficking, stability, function and localisation of different classes of membrane proteins.