77. Mosbacher Kolloquium: More than lipid barriers – New Horizons in membrane biology

“Membranes are everywhere!” Every cell is surrounded and defined by membranes. They separate inside from outside and thus determine the life and death of each cell. In eukaryotic cells, organelles are also enclosed by membranes. Each of these membranes consists of a multitude of membrane proteins and lipids that differ in charge, packing density, length, and saturation. Together they determine the identity and functionality of cells and organelles. Membranes show selective permeability, which is closely monitored by the cell. Only intact membranes can establish a membrane potential, which is essential for the uptake of nutrients such as glucose and amino acids, ions such as magnesium or potassium, for ATP production, and for signal transduction. Although their importance has long been recognized, recent scientific progress has sharpened our view of their complexity and significance.
Cellular membranes control and accelerate reactions. When reactions take place on membranes, the interaction space is reduced from 3D to 2D. For this to work, membranes must have a defined identity. Lipids must be specifically delivered to membranes when needed, providing membrane proteins with optimal conditions for function. Only in recent years have we begun to understand how membrane contact sites are organized and how they can influence cellular membranes. At these sites, specific lipid transporters act, either transferring individual lipids or moving them across open bridges. Yet, how exactly these lipid transporters shape the membrane composition of organelles remains unclear. Biophysical and biochemical methods, along with the newest modeling approaches, now make it possible to study these processes in both model systems and living cells in great detail.
Cellular membranes are under constant surveillance, allowing them to adapt to new physiological conditions or stress. Sensor proteins detect these changes and initiate adjustment processes, as well as repair mechanisms that have only been discovered recently. It is therefore not surprising that defects in the proteins involved are linked to the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Groundbreaking advances in lipid analytics, the targeted synthesis of modified lipids, and their detection using newly developed mass spectrometry methods now allow us not only to determine the composition of membranes in cells but also to look inside the cell itself. Combined with structural analyses and tomographic imaging of cells, this results in unparalleled insights into membrane proteins and membrane functions at a detailed level.
The Mosbach Colloquium 2026 has been designed to provide thorough coverage of key aspects of current membrane research and its importance for organismal physiology. The invited speakers represent the breadth of the field – from molecular analyses of membrane protein–lipid interactions, through membrane biophysics, to new techniques in lipid and protein analytics. The five sessions will begin with short introductions by the chairs to make the significance of the talks accessible to a broad audience. The program will feature presentations by established experts in the field as well as early career researchers.
The Mosbach Colloquium 2026 also aims to give young scientists an overview of the diversity of membrane research and to spark their enthusiasm for the topic.
Another key part of the meeting will be short talks by young researchers, selected from submitted abstracts. The program also includes three poster sessions, offering PhD students and postdocs the opportunity to present their work and engage in discussions about their results. In addition, the Junior GBM will continue the popular “Meet the Prof” sessions, providing informal opportunities for early career scientists to interact with experienced researchers.

During the Mosbacher Kolloquium, the GBM will award three prizes for young reserachers: the Bayer Pharmaceuticals PhD Award and the GBM PhD Award (both endowed with 1500 €), as well as the Otto Meyerhof Award for an outstanding young scientist, jointly awarded with Boehringer Ingelheim and endowed with 5000 €.

GBM's Feodyr Lynen Lecture will be held by Bruno Antonny (Valbonne, France). The primary research interest of the Bruno Antonny lab is the biochemistry of protein-membrane interactions, focusing on quantitative analysis of lipid droplet surfaces and their protein and lipid composition, domain dynamics, and reactivity to lipases in adipocytes.

Last but not least, the GBM, together with the sponsor Elsevier and its journal BBA, will award its prestigious Otto Warburg Medal to Maya Schuldiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). She will receive the award in recognition of her fundamental contributions to the understanding of the targeting process of proteins to organelles and the discovery of several contact sites of organelles.

Membrane & Organelle Organisation
Dimitrios Stamou, Copenhagen, DK
Gia Voeltz, Boulder, USA
David Teis, Innsbruck , AT
Wanda Kukulski, Bern, CH

Biochemistry meets Biophysics
Ilya Levental, Charlottesville, USA
Rumania Dimova, Potsdam, GER
Gerhard Hummer, Frankfurt, GER

Lipid homeostasis in health and disease
James Olzman, Berkeley, USA
Suzanne Pfeffer, Stanford, USA

Stressed membranes
Florian Fröhlich, Osnabrück, GER,
Ana Garcia-Saez, Frankfurt, GER

Cutting edge technologies
Maria Fedorova, Dresden, GER
Rachid Thiam, Paris, FR
Jörg Bewersdorf, Yale, USA
André Nadler, Dresden, GER
Jeremy Baskin, Cornell, USA

Junior GBM Session
Itay Budin, San Diego, USA
Francesca Bottanelli, Berlin, GER

Feodor Lynen Lecture
Bruno Antonny, Valbonne, FR

Otto Warburg Lecture
Maya Schuldiner, Rehovot, Israel