James Olzmann

Congrats, Jesse! Exciting discovery! 👏

A little late on here but happy to share my 3rd first author paper from grad school finally out in Science Advances!! In collaboration with James Olzmann's group, we find that Tregs utilize FSP1/Aifm2 for preventing lipid peroxide accumulation and preserve their suppressive function in tumor models.

Selective disruption of lipid peroxide homeostasis in intratumoral regulatory T cells by targeting FSP1 enhances cancer immunity Deletion of Aifm2 disrupts Treg cell immunosuppression within tumors without inciting autoimmune pathology in mice.

Thrilled to have contributed to this work led by @jgcastillo.bsky.social during his PhD at UC Berkeley w/ Michel DuPage. Targeting FSP1 in T cells boosts anti-tumor immunity by relieving Treg suppression, revealing a new immunomodulatory therapeutic axis. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks for the shout out, Jeremy!! Awesome to be on this list with all these lipid all star papers! ⭐️

Happy new year! I've so enjoyed the end-of-year lists of people's favorite papers from 2025, so I made a list of 16 #lipidtime studies from 2025 that I found interesting. Here they are in no particular order (please add more if you would like!), and here's to much more exciting science in 2026! 🧪

CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly Imbalances in lipid storage and secretion lead to the accumulation of hepatocyte lipid droplets (LDs) (i.e., hepatic steatosis). Our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the channeling of hepat...

15. And second, also from @olzmannlab.bsky.social, an ER chloride channel pushes LD formation toward the cytosol vs. nucleoplasm and affects nuclear pore complex assembly in @biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

14. Two studies that reshape thinking about lipid droplets biology. First, lipid peroxidation can occur to neutral lipids inside the core of LDs, with protective mechanisms revealed, from @mikelangelipid.bsky.social and @olzmannlab.bsky.social in @natcellbio.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spatial barcoding reveals reaction radii and contact-dependent mechanism of proximity labeling - Nature Chemical Biology A DNA nanoruler platform enables precise measurement of the labeling radii of TurboID and APEX2, uncovering their contact-dependent mechanisms. These findings redefine the enzymology of proximity labe...

Proximity labeling users: check out this study by @zhixingchen2.bsky.social and Peng Zou, which establishes how much contact-dependence vs. diffusion is responsible for biotinylation — tl;dr TurboID has a much smaller effective radius! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/2

Assistant Professor - Environmental Impact on Human Metabolic Disease - Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Two weeks left to apply! If you study any area of metabolism or metabolic disease (broadly defined), we encourage you to apply. The dept is excited about biological and molecular mechanisms, metabolic flux, therapeutics, and physiology related to disease.
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04710

In vivo models bring FSP1 inhibitors to life - Nature Cell Biology FSP1 is a key suppressor of lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis, yet it is largely dispensable in standard cell culture models. Two new studies now show that FSP1 becomes essential for tumour growth in...

Happy to see our News & Views is out! We highlight two landmark papers demonstrating the potential for therapeutic targeting of FSP1 and #ferroptosis in in vivo cancer models. Beautiful work from @ubellackerlab.bsky.social, Thales Papagiannakopoulos, and colleagues. 🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today, our animation synthesizing decades of research on actin-mediated endocytosis in budding yeast was published:
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

The result of a fantastic Iwasa-Drubin lab collaboration.

@margotriggi.bsky.social @jiwasa.bsky.social
movie.biologists.com/video/10.124...

Induced ubiquitination bypasses canonical ERAD to drive ER protein degradation Heterobifunctional proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) have emerged as a powerful strategy to degrade disease-relevant proteins, enabling targeting of previously "undruggable" proteins. Current d...

New preprint out! We show that PROTAC-induced ubiquitination can bypass canonical ERAD to degrade ER membrane proteins. Wonderful collaboration w/ @dannomura.bsky.social and huge credit to grad student superstar Sydney Tomlinson!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW - Toronto (City), Ontario (CA) job with Taipale Lab, Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto | 12849004 The Taipale lab in the Donnelly CCBR and University of Toronto is looking for a highly motivated Postdoctoral Fellow

We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on induced proximity 🤜🤛 and functional genomics! Join our team in Toronto 🇨🇦 to tackle major challenges in oncology and neurodegeneration. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

#NatMetabPicks | In @natcellbio.nature.com led by @olzmannlab.bsky.social ( @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social )

FSP1, localized to lipid droplets, protects stored lipids from oxidative damage and prevents ferroptosis.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Curious how proteins find their way to #LipidDroplets?

Our bipartite review traces their journey from ER insertion to LD partitioning:

👉 Navigating lipid droplet proteins - part II: Molecular mechanisms of ER-to-LD protein partitioning

#Organelles
#EndoplasmicReticulum
#ER_Literature

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

Excited to share my postdoc work @olzmannlab.bsky.social! We found lipid droplets, the cell’s lipid storage depots, are subject to oxidative damage and are protected by FSP1. Loss of FSP1 triggers droplet peroxidation and cell death, revealing a new layer of lipid quality control!

shorturl.at/B5XYD

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

Excited to share our study out in @natcellbio.nature.com! Led by @mikelangelipid.bsky.social, we identify the first #LipidDroplet lipid quality control pathway: LD-localized FSP1 protects stored lipids from oxidative damage and prevents LD-initiated #ferroptosis.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great Endoplasmic Reticulum meeting in Paris organized by the amazing Eric Chevet @ericchevet.bsky.social! It was wonderful to also hang out with James Olzmann @olzmannlab.bsky.social and Rachid Thiam @abdourachidthiam.bsky.social.

David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87

A giant in molecular biology and virology has passed. RIP David Baltimore.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

Join us in celebrating the #ASBMB26 Award Winners!
• @abu-remaileh.bsky.social
• Suzanne Barbour
• @bradylabupenn.bsky.social
• George Carman
• Joseph Cotruvo
• Roger Davis
• @rolanddunbrack.bsky.social
• Pamela Mertz
• @olzmannlab.bsky.social
• Kim Orth
• Margaret Phillips
ow.ly/x05f50WSbax

Congrats to MCB's James Olzmann @olzmannlab.bsky.social on receiving the ASBMB 2026 Avanti Award in Lipids @asbmb.bsky.social! 👍🎉

ASBMB names 2026 award winners Check out their lectures at the annual meeting in March in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

Humbled and honored to receive the 2026 Avanti Award in Lipids from ASBMB! Grateful to my exceptional lab, mentors, and collaborators for their support and inspiration. Excited to keep pushing the boundaries of lipid biology and therapeutics!
www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...

First day of class @UCBerkeley! Kicked off the day peeking in on the Therapeutic Discovery and Development class taught by @dannomura.bsky.social @robzonculab.bsky.social @urnov.bsky.social!! 🤩🔥!!

First day of class @UCBerkeley! Kicked off the day peeking in on the Therapeutic Discovery and Development class taught by @dannomura.bsky.social @robzonculab.bsky.social @urnov.bsky.social!! 🤩🔥!!

Tenure track position alert! Assistant Professor of Molecular Therapeutics in MCB @UCBerkeley. Apply and come be our colleague! 🎉
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05098

Multiple oestradiol functions inhibit ferroptosis and acute kidney injury - Nature 17β-oestradiol establishes an anti-ferroptotic state in female kidney tubules.

Happy to start at Bluesky with a post on our recent manuscript at @nature.com:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great collaboration with cool scientists such as @theprattgroup.bsky.social, @fedorovalab.bsky.social and many who do not (yet) have a Bluesky account.

Congrats! Looking forward to digging into this important review! 🤩

Hot off the presses! Was an honor to team up with Scott Dixon @stanforduniversity.bsky.social on this Nature Cancer review. We reflect on hurdles that have slowed translation of ferroptosis-directed therapies and share ideas on what it will take to bring these therapies to the clinic. rdcu.be/eBbqV

Jessalyn Ubellacker @ubellackerlab.bsky.social was honored with a FASEB Journal Early Career Researcher Award at the first FASEB Ferroptosis, Oxidative Stress, and Lipid Metabolism meeting, co-organized by James Olzmann @olzmannlab.bsky.social and Scott Dixon, to support early career researchers.

Jennifer Doudna named 2026 Priestley Medalist by the American Chemical Society.

Congrats to MCB's Jennifer Doudna @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social on receiving the 2026 ACS Priestley Medal from the @acs.org! 👏🏅
www.acs.org/pressroom/ne...