Bilayer membranes separate biological cells from the surrounding environment as well as different organelles inside cells. They are composed primarily of lipids and proteins that govern diverse biological processes, such as tissue formation and repair, nutrient uptake, neuronal communication, and immune responses. As a consequence, they are central players in numerous diseases and host-pathogen interactions, while membrane proteins (such as transporters, channels and receptors) are the targets of almost 70% of FDA-approved drugs. It is evident that current research on the structure and dynamics of biological membranes will have important medical applications, especially in the area of drug discovery and development. In addition, it has been demonstrated that certain functionalities of biological membranes can be reproduced in biomimetic systems with possible applications in water treatment, energy conversion, and nanomedicine. Biomimetic membranes can be used, for example, for designing innovative separation processes or for preparation of novel biosensors. 

Diverse biological processes involve changes in the shape of cellular membranes. They are also accompanied by redistributions of the lipid and protein components of the membranes. Among the major problems of contemporary biophysics is to explain how these dynamic rearrangements of cellular membranes – which typically occur at the length scales of micrometers – are induced by such molecular events as protein-protein binding or protein conformational transitions, which take place within the membranes at the length scales of Angstroms and nanometers. Solving this general problem is a central objective of our research.

We use statistical physics and computational methods ranging from all-atom molecular dynamics to coarse-grained molecular simulations to mesoscale membrane models. By combining the different levels of modeling, simulations and experiments – from molecular to subcellular – we attempt to bridge the knowledge about biogenesis and shapes of cellular membranes with the information about structures and dynamics of their molecular components. 

Team members

Former members