lyso-sphingomyelin

Identification of key lipids critical for platelet activation by comprehensive analysis of the platelet lipidome

Shorthand nomenclature developed by Gerhard Liebisch

There was great work done on lipids in the 1980’s and 1990’s already. People like Britta Brüger, Andrej Shevchenko and Wolf Dieter Lehmann were pioneers of lipidomics and translated nanospray methods for the analysis of lipids. In the early 2000’s, Britta Brüger published an application of nanospray for direct infusion instrument, which made it more interesting for membrane biologists such as Kai Simons or Felix Wieland who also works in Heidelberg. They then adapted this for their own research on lipid transporters. And since then, it became clearer and clearer that mass spectrometry is the tool to go with for lipid analysis: you can analyze a lot of things simultaneously and do it in a quantitative context.