Lung cancer cell. This image shows a single cell grown from a culture of lung epithelial carcinoma (cancer) cells. The purple area shows blebbing.

Blebs are irregular bulges in the plasma membrane of the cell caused by localized decoupling of the cytoskeleton from the plasma membrane. Blebbing is important in a variety of cellular processes including cell locomotion, cell division and physical or chemical stresses. The green area shows an area of the cell where the blebbing is not occurring or is not visible. Wellcome Image Award Winner 2009 Wellcome Image Awards 2009.