Lipids are small hydrophobic molecules that carry out a multitude of crucial roles. For example, they act as structural elements in biological membranes, they store energy and they function as signalling molecules in cellular response pathways. Disruption to their levels of expression — as occurs in obesity, diabetes, autoimmunity or inborn errors of lipid metabolism — leads to dysfunction and disease in many organs.

In this Insight, Joost Holthuis and Anant Menon begin by discussing the cellular pathways by which eukaryotic cells maintain a variety of lipid compositions in different organelles so that they can carry out their specialized tasks.

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