Federico Tesio Torta
Research Assistant Professor, Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING), Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Email: federico_torta@nuhs.edu.sg

What are your present research interests?

My main interest is in protein and lipid biochemistry. This has been applied to many different studies, covering for example plants growth, viral infection mechanisms, neuronal pathologies in flies and humans, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancer.

Do you have a distinctive viewpoint to your research?

The growth of high-throughput omics technologies offers an amazing opportunity to capture the whole picture of biological systems in a hypothesis-free and unbiased mode. I would like to pool some of these technologies in a single environment.

What do you see as your future research directions?

My present and future interests lie at the intersection between lipids and proteins and in creating new analytical methodologies for these studies based on mass spectrometry. Applications of my knowledge in both fields are Native Mass Spectrometry of protein-lipid complexes and integration between metabolomics and proteomics for clinical research.

Does your laboratory have a particularly strong research expertise?

We focus on mass spectrometry of small molecules, lipids and proteins for both basic and clinical research.

Recent Publications

1. SPNS1 variants cause multi-organ disease and implicate lysophospholipid transport as critical for mTOR-regulated lipid homeostasis. He M, Ding M, Chocholouskova M, Chin CF, Engvall M, Malmgren H, Wagner M, Lauffer MC, Heisinger J, Malicdan MCV, Allamand V, Durbeej M, Delgado-Vega AM, Sejersen T, Nordgren A, Torta F, Silver DL. J Clin Invest. 2025 Jul 3:e193099. doi: 10.1172/JCI193099.
2. Ultrafast Measurement of Circulating Ceramides in Human Cohorts. Tham WK, Chang JK, Teo GS, Vasile VC, Meeusen JW, Ekroos K, Futerman AH, Kuan WS, Choi H, Wenk MR, Torta F. Anal Chem. 2025 Jul 8;97(26):13789-13798. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c00058.
3. Deep sphingolipidomic and metabolomic analyses of ceramide synthase 2 null mice reveal complex pathway-specific effects. Oh J, Muralidharan S, Zhao Q, Scholz J, Zelnik ID, Blumenreich S, Joseph T, Dingjan T, Narayanaswamy P, Choi H, Hayen H, Torta F, Futerman AH. J Lipid Res. 2025 May 29;66(7):100832. doi: 10.1016/j.jlr.2025.100832.
4. Metabolomics profiling in multi-ancestral individuals with type 2 diabetes in Singapore identified metabolites associated with renal function decline. Chen Y, Torta F, Koh HWL, Benke PI, Gurung RL, Liu JJ, Ang K, Shao YM, Chan GC, Choo JC, Ching J, Kovalik JP, Kalhan T, Dorajoo R, Khor CC, Li Y, Tang WE, Seah DEJ, Sabanayagam C, Sobota RM, Venkataraman K, Coffman T, Wenk MR, Sim X, Lim SC, Tai ES. Diabetologia. 2025 Mar;68(3):557-575. doi: 10.1007/s00125-024-06324-z.
5. Concordant inter-laboratory derived concentrations of ceramides in human plasma reference materials via authentic standards. Torta F, Hoffmann N, Burla B, Alecu I, Arita M, Bamba T, Bennett SAL, Bertrand-Michel J, Brügger B, Cala MP, Camacho-Muñoz D, Checa A, Chen M, Chocholoušková M, Cinel M, Chu-Van E, Colsch B, Coman C, Connell L, Sousa BC, Dickens AM, Fedorova M, Eiríksson FF, Gallart-Ayala H, Ghorasaini M, Giera M, Guan XL, Haid M, Hankemeier T, Harms A, Höring M, Holčapek M, Hornemann T, Hu C, Hülsmeier AJ, Huynh K, Jones CM, Ivanisevic J, Izumi Y, Köfeler HC, Lam SM, Lange M, Lee JC, Liebisch G, Lippa K, Lopez-Clavijo AF, Manzi M, Martinefski MR, Math RGH, Mayor S, Meikle PJ, Monge ME, Moon MH, Muralidharan S, Nicolaou A, Nguyen-Tran T, O’Donnell VB, Orešič M, Ramanathan A, Riols F, Saigusa D, Schock TB, Schwartz-Zimmermann H, Shui G, Singh M, Takahashi M, Thorsteinsdóttir M, Tomiyasu N, Tournadre A, Tsugawa H, Tyrrell VJ, van der Gugten G, Wakelam MO, Wheelock CE, Wolrab D, Xu G, Xu T, Bowden JA, Ekroos K, Ahrends R, Wenk MR. Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 3;15(1):8562. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52087-x.