Research Projects
How do organelles build, remodel, and communicate?
We focus on membrane contact sites, lipid transfer proteins, and disease-linked remodeling of the ER, endolysosomes, mitochondria, Golgi membranes, and lipid droplets.
Central Question
Cells move lipids between organelles without vesicles, using lipid transfer proteins that shuttle or bridge their cargo directly across the gaps between membranes. This non-vesicular lipid traffic sets the lipid identity of each organelle and underlies its trafficking, metabolism, and stress responses.
The Ji Lab asks which lipid transfer proteins carry this traffic, what cargo they move and how, and why mutations that disrupt them cause neurological, metabolic, and developmental disease — from Cohen syndrome to Parkinson's disease and spastic ataxia.
