Views of how cell membranes are organized are presently changing. The lipid bilayer that constitutes these membranes is no longer understood to be a homogeneous fluid. Instead, lipid assemblies, termed rafts, have been introduced to provide fluid platforms that segregate membrane components and dynamically compartmentalize membranes. These assemblies are thought to be composed mainly of sphingolipids and cholesterol in the outer leaflet, somehow connected to domains of unknown composition in the inner leaflet. Specific classes of proteins are associated with the rafts. This review critically analyzes what is known of phase behavior and liquid-liquid immiscibility in model systems and compares these data with what is known of domain formation in cell membranes.

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Model systems, lipid rafts, and cell membranes.

The design and characterization of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials for optoelectronic applications represents an active area of recent research in organoelectronics. Noble metal-free TADF molecules offer unique optical and electronic properties arising from the efficient transition and interconversion between the lowest singlet (S1) and triplet (T1) excited states. Their ability to harvest triplet excitons for fluorescence through facilitated reverse intersystem crossing (T1→S1) could directly impact their properties and performances, which is attractive for a wide variety of low-cost optoelectronic devices. TADF-based organic light-emitting diodes, oxygen, and temperature sensors show significantly upgraded device performances that are comparable to the ones of traditional rare-metal complexes. Here we present an overview of the quick development in TADF mechanisms, materials, and applications. Fundamental principles on design strategies of TADF materials and the common relationship between the molecular structures and optoelectronic properties for diverse research topics and a survey of recent progress in the development of TADF materials, with a particular emphasis on their different types of metal-organic complexes, D-A molecules, and fullerenes, are highlighted. The success in the breakthrough of the theoretical and technical challenges that arise in developing high-performance TADF materials may pave the way to shape the future of organoelectronics.

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials Towards the Breakthrough of Organoelectronics

https://www.cell.com/biophysj/pdf/S0006-3495(03)74726-2.pdf

Separation of liquid phases in giant vesicles of ternary mixtures of phospholipids and cholesterol.

▪ Abstract Lipid raft microdomains were conceived as part of a mechanism for the intracellular trafficking of lipids and lipid-anchored proteins. The raft hypothesis is based on the behavior of defined lipid mixtures in liposomes and other model membranes. Experiments in these well-characterized systems led to operational definitions for lipid rafts in cell membranes. These definitions, detergent solubility to define components of rafts, and sensitivity to cholesterol deprivation to define raft functions implicated sphingolipid- and cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in many cell functions. Despite extensive work, the basis for raft formation in cell membranes and the size of rafts and their stability are all uncertain. Recent work converges on very small rafts <10 nm in diameter that may enlarge and stabilize when their constituents are cross-linked.

https://www.physics.iitm.ac.in/~iol/lecture_notes/vani/general-lipid-stuff/lipid-rafts-2003-ann.rev.pdf

The state of lipid rafts: from model membranes to cells.

Rhodamine dyes are widely used as fluorescent probes owing to their high absorption coefficient and broad fluorescence in the visible region of electromagnetic spectrum, high fluorescence quantum yield and photostability. A great interest in the development of new synthetic procedures for preparation of Rhodamine derivatives has arisen in recent years because for most applications the probe must be covalently linked to another (bio)molecule or surface. In this critical review the strategies for modification of Rhodamine dyes and a discussion on the variety of applications of these new derivatives as fluorescent probes are given (108 references).

Synthesis and applications of Rhodamine derivatives as fluorescent probes

https://www.cell.com/biophysj/pdf/S0006-3495(03)74664-5.pdf

Sphingomyelin/phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol phase diagram: boundaries and composition of lipid rafts

Fluid–Fluid Membrane Microheterogeneity: A Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Study

Nonequilibrium Phenomena in the Phase Separation of a Two-Component Lipid Bilayer

Exclusion of a cholesterol analog from the cholesterol-rich phase in model membranes.

http://web.ist.utl.pt/ist12219/data/45.pdf

Aleksandre Fedorov

Papers

Sphingomyelin/phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol phase diagram: boundaries and composition of lipid rafts

Fluid–Fluid Membrane Microheterogeneity: A Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Study

Nonequilibrium Phenomena in the Phase Separation of a Two-Component Lipid Bilayer

Exclusion of a cholesterol analog from the cholesterol-rich phase in model membranes.

A study of thermally activated delayed fluorescence in C60