Lipidomics - the Science and Study of How Lipids Affect and Modify Our Health

In this months’ science article, Kalliopi Dodou and Paul Whiteley take a look at the growing interest in the research of lipids

Lipids represent a catch-all term for a large number of compounds, including oils, fats and phospholipids, which collectively share the unifying trait of being hydrophobic. In their various guises they are abundant throughout the human body, constituting one of the major molecular schemes of biological function and life. For example, in the human brain, fat comprises about 60 per cent of the total matter volume. Such fats are linked to neuronal functions, including the insulating qualities of myelin. As Hirabayashi1 put it, there is “a world of sphingolipids and glycolipids in the brain”.

Steroids are important biological lipids. Steroids encompass the sex hormones, which play important roles in terms of gender, conception and contraception. They also encompass perhaps one of the most widely studied and discussed of the lipids, cholesterol, which has implications, both positive and negative, for various conditions and diseases that impact on health and well-being.