First FOR 5815 Retreat in Heidelberg
The Lipid Droplets Heterogeneity Research Unit (FOR 5815) held its first retreat from October 13–15, 2025, at the University of Heidelberg—a city celebrated for its strong scientific and academic tradition. This energetic event brought together principal investigators alongside PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the eight partnering German institutions.
Across three days, the retreat featured a dynamic program:
• Project updates and presentations covering LD function in viral infections, liver and cancer biology, and the molecular diversity of lipid/protein compositions in disease.
• Interactive technical presentations on state-of-the-art methodologies such as confocal imaging, cryo-EM, phosphoproteomics, and high-throughput screening.
• Lively roundtable discussions for peer learning, networking, and planning future collaborative lab rotations.
• PhD students and postdocs played a central role, presenting data, sharing technical insights, and driving the intellectual energy of the meeting.Their active contributions sparked vibrant conversations, strengthened community ties, and launched new collaborative ideas to be explored across our partner institutions.
This retreat exemplified the collaborative spirit of FOR 5815, creating new connections between labs and setting the stage for future exchanges in methods, mentoring, and joint research projects.
Sincere thanks go to all participants and the local organizing team at the University of Heidelberg, and to the DFG for enabling this important initiative. We look forward to building on the momentum and enthusiasm from this event as we continue our research to understand lipid droplet diversity in health and disease.