We report here the cloning and characterization of a novel human lipoma HMGIC fusion partner-like 1 (LHFPL1) gene, isolated from human brain cDNA library, and mapped to Xq23 by browsing the UCSC genomic database. LHFPL1 contains an ORF with length of 660bp, encoding a protein with a signal peptide sequence and three transmembrane regions, and its predicted molecular weight is 23.7kDa which coincides with the result of prokaryotic expression. LHFPL1 protein is postulated to be localized at endoplasmic reticulum. RT-PCR amplification in seventen human tissues revealed that LHFPL1 is expressed widely in all tissues, especially highly in lung, thymus, skeleton muscle, colon and ovary. In addition, it was demonstrated that LHFPL1 is also transcribed in six liver tumor cell lines.