New interdisciplinary research co-led by Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and Carnegie Mellon University sheds light onto how and why the cell membrane forms and grows “lipid rafts” triggered by ligand-receptor activity. The work could lead to new strategies and innovative approaches to prevent or fight the action of the virus through the integration of biomedical and engineering knowledge.

“Our team used an interdisciplinary approach to better understand why active receptors tend to cluster on lipid rafts. More importantly, we confirm and predict the formation of the complex ligand receptors,” said Luca Deseri, professor in the Swanson School’s Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department.

Other institutions involved with the research include DICAM-University of Trento in Italy and the University of Naples-Federico II in Naples, Italy. The research was published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.