title: Revitalizing membrane rafts: new tools and insights.
abstract: Ten years ago, we wrote a Review on lipid rafts and signalling in the launch issue of Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. At the time, this field was suffering from ambiguous methodology and imprecise nomenclature. Now, new techniques are deepening our insight into the dynamics of membrane organization. Here, we discuss how the field has matured and present an evolving model in which membranes are occupied by fluctuating nanoscale assemblies of sphingolipids, cholesterol and proteins that can be stabilized into platforms that are important in signalling, viral infection and membrane trafficking.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany. simons@mpi-cbg.de
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: Mathias J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gerl
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods; D021941:Caveolae / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003902:Detergents; D006801:Humans; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012995:Solubility; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003902:Detergents