New imaging technique maps membrane lipids in 3D at nanoscale

The biological membranes of cells and their subunits (organelles) are organized into tiny regions (nanodomains) made up of fats (lipids) and proteins. These specialized regions carry out important tasks for the cell, such as signaling, sorting or transport. Although the proteins in these areas are well understood, the distribution and behavior of lipids within them remains somewhat mysterious, because lipids move very quickly and existing methods struggle to visualize individual lipid species at high resolution.