Syllabus
Fundamental concepts, chemical composition of biological membranes. Membrane lipids.
Thermodynamic principles. Water structure and hydrophobic effect.
Thermodynamic aspects of lipid aggregation/lipid polymorphism. Phase transitions in lipid aggregates.
Model lipid membranes, planar membranes, liposomes. Membrane proteins, purification of membrane proteins, experimental methods used to study protein structure, structure of membrane proteins, the synthesis of membrane proteins and endoplasmic reticulum.
Lipid-protein interactions, membrane "fluidity". The interaction of small molecules with biomembranes.
Electric properties of cell membranes, membrane potential. Pores, channels and transporters.
Membrane fusion. Membrane spectroscopy, fluorescence, NMR, EPR - principles, instrumentation, applications.
Annotation
Chemical composition and structure of biological membranes. Membrane lipids.
Membrane proteins. Lipid-protein interactions.
The interaction of small molecules with biomembranes. Electric properties of cell membranes, membrane potential.
Pores, channels and transporters. Membrane fusion.
Membrane spectroscopy. Biogenesis of biomembranes.