  To understand mechanism of cell-membrane compartmentalization, we studied
coarse-grained model systems consisting of lipid and cholesterol molecules.
Cholesterol plays crucial role in lateral phase segregation in the bilayered
lipid membrane to form cholesterol rich liquid ordered domains, termed as
`rafts'. In this NVT Molecular Dynamics simulation study, we have investigated
the role of cholesterol in raft-like domain formation. The study reveals that
the strength of cholesterol interaction is an important factor behind the phase
segregation to form cholesterol rich domains, whereas, the relative dipolar
strength of lipid and cholesterol molecules controls the formation of
multi-bilayered stack.
