Date:      Wednesday, 15 Oct 2025
Time:      11am –12pm
Venue:   SBS CR2 (SBS-01n-22)

Abstract:
This seminar will present research from my new lab on how lipid modifications and damage shape infection outcomes. While studying S-acylation, a reversible lipid modification that regulates SARS-CoV-2 assembly and modulates host immunity, we uncovered an epigenetically regulated transcriptional program that controls cellular defenses against lipid oxygen radicals. This program is activated by lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress during viral infection, bacterial toxin exposure, and other pathophysiological contexts. I will outline its main components and highlight its protective role in protecting cells against oxidative stress–induced cell death, including ferroptosis. I will also discuss future directions linking lipid damage sensing to infection and immunity. Together, these studies reveal how cells convert lipid perturbations into defense strategies with broad relevance for cell biology and medicine.

Speaker:
Asst Prof Francisco Mesquita
Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Biography:
Francisco Mesquita is Assistant Professor of Microbiology at LKCMedicine, NTU Singapore. He obtained his Ph.D. in Cellular Microbiology at Imperial College London with David Holden and completed postdoctoral training as an EMBO fellow in Porto, studying bacterial pathogenesis, host membrane damage, and autophagy. In 2018 he joined Gisou van der Goot’s lab at EPFL Lausanne as a Senior Scientist, leading projects on protein lipidation in infection and organelle biology. In 2025 he established his own lab at LKCMedicine to investigate how lipid modifications and damage influence infection, immunity, and disease.