The Biology of Intracellular Lipid Trafficking

Lipids are fundamental components of cells, crucial for defining organelle identity, regulating cellular signaling, and directing intracellular trafficking. Despite these essential roles, how lipids are transported to the correct subcellular domains to carry out their functions and how defects in lipid transport contribute to diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative disorders remain poorly understood.

In the Bashirullah lab, we focus on intracellular lipid trafficking through the study of a newly defined superfamily of lipid transfer proteins: the bridge-like lipid transfer proteins (BLTPs). These proteins act as lipid superhighways, facilitating the rapid exchange of lipids between organelle membranes at membrane contact sites. We have helped define members of the BLTP superfamily and are current investigating their molecular, cellular, physiological, behavioral and developmental functions using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. By dissecting the roles of these proteins, particularly BLTP2 (hobbit in flies), we aim to identify the mechanisms that control lipid transport and understand how defects in these mechanisms impact cellular function and disease etiology. Ultimately, we hope to generate insights that could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for a wide range of diseases associated with lipid trafficking defects.

Background: Arash received a BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Winnipeg and a PhD in Biology from the California Institute of Technology. He did his postdoctoral research at Yale and the University of Utah before joining the Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty in August 2007. He is also a PhD trainer in Genetics, in Cellular and Molecular Biology, and in the Molecular Biosciences Training Grant Program. Arash was elected as a Kavli Fellow in 2014, a program co-sponsored by the US National Academy of Sciences. Arash is a BTAA-ALP Fellow, completing the year-long Academic Leadership Program sponsored by the Big Ten Academic Alliance in 2022. He has received Teacher of the Year Awards in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Arash serves as a Senior Advisory Editor for the journal Genetics.

Education:

• PhD Biology - California Institute of Technology
• BS Chemistry - University of Winnipeg

• Brashi, B., E.A. Bruford, A.T. Cavanagh, S.D. Neuman, and A. Bashirullah (2022). The bridge-like lipid transfer protein (BLTP) gene group: introducing new nomenclature based on structural homology indicating shared function. Human Genomics, 16(1):66
• Neuman, S.D., T.P. Levine, and A. Bashirullah (2022). A novel superfamily of bridge-like lipid transfer proteins. Trends in Cell Biology, 32(11): 962-974
• Neuman, S.D., Jorgensen, J.R., Cavanagh, A.T., Smyth, J.T., Selegue, J.E., Emr, S.D., and A. Bashirullah (2022). The Hob proteins are novel and conserved lipid binding proteins at ER-PM contact sites. Journal of Cell Science, 135(5):jcs259086
• Neuman, S.D., A. Cavanagh and A. Bashirullah (2021). The Hob proteins: Putative novel lipid transfer proteins at ER-PM contact sites. Contact, 4:1-3
• Neuman, S.D., Lee, A.R., Selegue, J.E., Cavanagh, A.T., and A. Bashirullah (2021). A novel function for Rab1 and Rab11 during secretory granule maturation. Journal of Cell Science, 134(15):jcs259037
• Neuman, S.D., E.L. Terry, J.E. Selegue, A.T. Cavanagh, A. Bashirullah (2021). Mistargetting of secretory cargo in retromer-deficient cells. Disease Models Mechanisms, 14:dmm046417
• Brooks, D., F. Naeem, M. Stetsiv, N. Green, C. Clark, A. Bashirullah, and E.R. Geisbrecht (2020). Drosophila NUAK functions with Starvin/BAG3 in autophagic protein turnover. PLoS Genetics, 16(4): e1008700
• Vasudevan, D., S.D. Neuman, A.Yang, L. Lough, B. Brown, A. Bashirullah, T. Cardozo, H.D. Ryoo (2020). Translation of the stress response mediator ATF4 requires noncanonical initiation factors eIF2D and DENR. Nature Communications, 11(1):4677
• Neuman, S.D. Bashirullah, A. (2018). Reconsidering the passive diffusion model of steroid hormone cellular entry. Developmental Cell, 47(3):261-262
• Neuman, S.D. Bashirullah, A. (2018). Hobbit regulates intracellular trafficking to drive insulin-dependent growth during Drosophila development. Development. 145(11): dev161356