Abstract
Due to a high-flux of pulsed neutron beam served at J-PARC, a new world of biological science will be opened in a very wide hierarchal structure and dynamics that are essential in biological phenomena. In this short review, our recent studies of 'lipid rafts' model membrane using small-angle neutron scattering and neutron spin echo are introduced. 'Lipid rafts' have been attracting great interest since they are assumed to have a function as a platform of membrane-associated events such as signal transduction, cell adhesion, lipid/protein sorting and so on. In this decade knowledge about their biological functions have been accumulated intensively. Lipid rafts are considered as a dynamic assembly of lipids (major components are sphingolipid and cholesterol) and proteins. However, their structure and dynamics in plasma membrane still remain the subject of debate. We have clarified prominent characteristics of lipid-raft model membrane composed of glycoshpingolipid (ganglioside)/cholesterol/phospholipid.
