Analysis of molecular assemblage in lipid bilayers using bicelles

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Bicelles are lipid aggregates composed of long-chain phospholipid and short-chain one. Since bicelles have true bilayer portions, they are used as a membrane model. In this study, we developed a methodology to analyze the structure of membrane associated bioactive compounds using bicelles. We first applied the methodology to antifungal compound amphidinol, and successfully determined its structure in membrane and proposed the mechanism of its biological activity. Then we analyzed the structure of sphingomyelin, which draws a lot of attention as a component of lipid rafts, and revealed molecular basis of raft formation.