Novel self-assembling lipids for formulation of dietary fat and bioactive compounds

The main purpose of the project is to increase the understanding of how the structure of polar lipid molecules can be modulated to make them form self-assembling structures (liposomes, cubosomes, etc.) with properties making them suitable for application in food and medicine.

The preparation of the novel lipids will be carried out mainly using enzymes as catalysts, to achieve high selectivity and product purity.

Liposomes and other structures with superior stability to storage and handling will be prepared by using lipids causing steric and electrostatic repulsion between the individual structured particles.The novel lipids will be evaluated as food ingredients to induce natural satiety, thereby combatting health problems due to overweight and obesity.

This will be achieved by finding lipids which slow down the rate of fat digestion, known to cause the release of satiety hormones from the intestines. Furthermore, the lipids will be used to formulate bioactive compounds with vitamin D as example. The aim  is to provide the bioactives in a form which is highly bioavailable to humans.

Both types of applications will be tested in a system simulating the human gastrointestinal tract.This 4-year-project will be a collaboration between Div. of Biotechnology, responsibly for lipid synthesis, and Div. of Physical Chemistry, responsible for lipid characterization and self assembly studies.

Applied studies will be done together.