A joint research team from National Taiwan University (NTU) and National Chi Nan University (NCNU) has achieved a major scientific breakthrough by observing the nanoscale dynamics of membrane rafts in living cells for the very first time. Published in Science Advances, the study utilized Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) combined with a Hadamard product-based image reconstruction algorithm to capture the real-time formation, fusion, and dissipation of these elusive 10–200 nm structures. For decades, the existence of these lipid rafts—which serve as vital platforms for signal transduction, viral entry, and cancer metastasis—had been highly debated because traditional methods could only observe them in dead, fixed cells. By finally making these “invisible” dynamic regions visible, this interdisciplinary achievement not only resolves a long-standing biological mystery but also paves the way for innovative rapid drug-screening platforms and advanced research into disease mechanisms.

Full text link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adv7001