A Beginner’s Short Guide to Membrane Biophysics

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter provides a basic guide to the essentials of membrane biophysics. The review consists of three parts: The first part focuses on physicochemical aspects of biomembranes. The origin of the hydrophobic attraction that drives the self-assembly of lipids into large structures like membranes is explained, and an overview of the thermodynamic properties of bilayer membranes is given. The second part introduces the Helfrich model for the curvature elasticity of two-dimensional manifolds. This is the most commonly used framework for studying the mechanical properties of lipid membranes. The third part of the chapter is dedicated to molecular simulations of membranes. The principles of molecular dynamics simulations are explained, and the different modeling strategies for membranes, ranging from atomistic to highly coarse-grained lattice-based models, are reviewed. These different classes of models address membrane properties and processes across a wide spectrum of lengths and time scales.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNecas Center Series
PublisherBirkhauser
Pages1-41
Number of pages41
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021

Publication series

NameNecas Center Series
VolumePart F1669
ISSN (Print)2523-3343
ISSN (Electronic)2523-3351

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Mathematics
  • Engineering (miscellaneous)
  • Computational Theory and Mathematics

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