tactoid

plural tactoids

1. natural sciencesAn elongated liquid crystal microdomain
2. biologyAn elongated particle, particularly a cell

   Minute quantities of chiral molecules such as amino acid L-alanine and limonene transform the racemic array of left- and right-twisted tactoids into a homochiral set.

   2015, Chenhui Peng, Oleg D. Lavrentovich, “Chirality Amplification and Detection by Tactoids of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals”, in arXiv

   1 more example

   Because immunotactoids may be composed of either immune complexes or monoclonal proteins, which are capable of forming tactoids or microtubules, the variability in the size and the orientation of the tactoids from one patient to another may be a result of concentration or biochemical composition of the protein similar to that described in cryoglobulinemia.

   2006, Korbet SM, Schwartz MM, Lewis EJ, “Immunotactoid glomerulopathy (fibrillary glomerulonephritis)”, in Clin J Am Soc Nephrol, volume 1, number 6, →DOI, →PMID, pages 1351–1356