To better understand the biological processes that govern lipid raft formation—processes with broad implications for research ranging from how cells regulate proteins to how viruses invades healthy human cells—researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using two world-class research facilities to study the presence and formation of these nanoscale lipid patches.
Researchers used the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) and the Neutron Spin Echo and EQ-SANS instruments at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) (both at ORNL) to understand membrane organization and how it affects biology. In the near term, the larger team seeks to determine the presence or absence of lipid rafts. Work was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.