Our immune system’s communications network involves billions of proteins and other biomolecules. Interactions between these molecules are influenced by the spatial patterning of signaling and receptor molecules. To observe signaling spatial patterns in immune and other cellular systems, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed the first practical application of optical nanoantennas in cell membrane biology. The team laced artificial lipid membranes with billions of gold ‘bowtie’ nanoantennas. These nanoantennas boost the intensity of a optical signal from a protein passing through a plasmonic ‘hot-spot’ without the protein ever being touched. "The idea that optical nanoantennas can produce [these]kinds of enhanced signals ... has been known for years but this is the first time that nanoantennas have been fabricated into a fluid membrane so that we can observe every molecule in the system as it passes," Jay Groves, an author of the new research, says.