Bio-inspired assembly in a phospholipid bilayer: effective regulation of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions for plasma membrane specific probes.

Inspired by the natural properties of the phospholipid bilayer (PB), three probes that could assemble with phospholipid bilayer through hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions are reported for rapid and accurate specific imaging of plasma membrane in 2D and 3D cell models. What's more, we have captured the picture of probe assembly with the phospholipid bilayer in cells for the first time.