Arun John Peter
Assistant Professor
Cellular & Physiological Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
Contact
Email: arun.johnpeter@ubc.ca
Education
Visiting Scientist, University of Fribourg & ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Post-Doc, Kornmann lab at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
PhD, Ungermann lab, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
B.Tech (Biotechnology), PSG College of Technology, India
Research Interests
Lipid transport, Membrane contact sites, Organelle homeostasis, Synthetic biology, Lipid quality control
Comprehensive List
Dr. John Peter conducted his graduate studies in the lab of Prof. Christian Ungermann at the University of Osnabrueck, Germany. This work uncovered a novel protein complex (BLOC-1) in yeast, and its function in endosome maturation and recycling of amino acid transporters back to the plasma membrane.
During his postdoctoral research in the lab of Prof. Benoit Kornmann at ETH Zurich, he switched to lipid trafficking and uncovered a new pathway (Vps13-Mcp1 pathway) that facilitates mitochondrial lipid transport mitochondria. His research further led to the development of seminal strategies, including a novel tool (METALIC – Mass-tagging Enabled TAgging of Lipids In Cells) that enables monitoring of lipid traffic inside living cells. This breakthrough was recognized by the FreeNovation grant of the Novartis Foundation (2022) & the Spark grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2020) as part of which he was a Visiting scientist in the Vanni lab at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and the Peter lab at ETH Zurich to expand the scope of METALIC and investigate inter-organelle lipid transport.