{"id":2233,"date":"2025-04-10T10:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/membrane-biology\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:57:40","slug":"levental-lab-publishes-ground-breaking-paper-in-cell-on-lipid-and-cholesterol-asymmetry-in-cell-membranes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/membrane-biology\/levental-lab-publishes-ground-breaking-paper-in-cell-on-lipid-and-cholesterol-asymmetry-in-cell-membranes\/","title":{"rendered":"Levental lab publishes ground-breaking paper in Cell on lipid and cholesterol asymmetry in cell membranes."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This important paper published in <i><a title=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0092867425002703?via%3Dihub\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0092867425002703?via%3Dihub\">Cell<\/a> <\/i>\u00a0challenges a major assumption in cell biology by showing that lipid bilayers can have drastically different phospholipid abundances between their two leaflets. This lipid abundance asymmetry is enabled by the unique properties of cholesterol and endows biomembranes with distinctive properties and physiological roles. The lead author was research associate Dr. Milka Doktorova of the Levental lab, who is now a faculty member at Stockholm University, Sweden. Other contributors included collaborators from the University of Tennessee, the University of Delaware, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about this in <a href=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/research\/levental-lab-publishes-new-research-in-the-journal-cell-about-how-lipid-imbalances-in-cell-membranes-affect-health-and-disease\/?j=3865386&amp;sfmc_sub=7193409&amp;l=35_HTML&amp;u=59612113&amp;mid=100026982&amp;jb=1004\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UVa&#8217;s Medicine In Motion<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Congratulations!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This important paper published in Cell \u00a0challenges a major assumption in cell biology by showing that lipid bilayers can have drastically different phospholipid abundances between their two leaflets. This lipid abundance asymmetry is enabled by the unique properties of cholesterol and endows biomembranes with distinctive properties and physiological roles. The lead author was research associate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":431,"featured_media":2237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-2233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-intranet"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Levental lab publishes ground-breaking paper in Cell on lipid and cholesterol asymmetry in cell membranes. - Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/membrane-biology\/levental-lab-publishes-ground-breaking-paper-in-cell-on-lipid-and-cholesterol-asymmetry-in-cell-membranes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Levental lab publishes ground-breaking paper in Cell on lipid and cholesterol asymmetry in cell membranes. - Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This important paper published in Cell \u00a0challenges a major assumption in cell biology by showing that lipid bilayers can have drastically different phospholipid abundances between their two leaflets. This lipid abundance asymmetry is enabled by the unique properties of cholesterol and endows biomembranes with distinctive properties and physiological roles. 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