Engineering membrane lipids in live cells

The lack of tools to manipulate membrane lipid composition in live cells have hindered our ability to understand the function of lipids in membranes surrounding cells and their internal compartments. Pharmacological inhibition of lipid synthesis remains the most widely used approach to manipulate cell membrane lipids. However, these methods work for a limited lipid classes, are non-selective and do not permit efficient introduction of unnatural lipids. Lipid exchange using cyclodextrins (CDs) is a promising approach but its application is limited to model organisms. Eukaryotic plasma membrane is complex and therefore the ability to manipulate its lipid composition would provide a useful tool to study the membrane-mediated diseases.