The Structure of Biological Membranes

Biological membranes provide the fundamental structure of cells and viruses. Because much of what happens in a cell or in a virus occurs on, in, or across biological membranes, the study of membranes has rapidly permeated the fields of biology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and materials science. The Structure of Biological Membranes, Third Edition provides readers with an understanding of membrane structure and function that is rooted in the history of the field and brought to the forefront of current knowledge.

The first part of the book focuses on the fundamentals of lipid bilayers and membrane proteins. Three introductory chapters supply those new to the field with the tools and conceptual framework with which to approach the state-of-the-art chapters that follow. The second part of the book presents in-depth analyses of focused subjects within the study of membranes, covering topics that include:

• Phase behavior of lipid bilayers
• Lipid bilayers as an isolated structure
• Cholesterol’s role in cell biology
• Lateral organization of membranes
• The role of membrane lipids in initial membrane protein folding
• Membrane protein synthesis and assembly of oligomeric membrane proteins
• Membrane protein stability with relationships to function and protein turnover
• Membrane protein function using a transport protein
• Interactions between membrane proteins and membrane lipids

A final chapter pulls together many of the topics, examining in detail the complexity inherent in the synthesis and assembly of lipids and proteins in mitochondrial membranes. With contributions from leading researchers, this completely revised and updated third edition reflects recent advances in the field of biological membranes. It offers a valuable resource for students, as well as structural biologists, biophysicists, cell biologists, biochemists, and researchers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

What’s New in This Edition:

• Three accessible chapters introduce students to the field of biological membranes
• Completely revised and updated chapters present current topics in membrane research

Philip L. Yeagle is dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and chief academic research officer at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. He obtained his PhD at Duke University in 1974. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia, he started his studies of membrane structure and dynamics, supported by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship. There he was one of the first investigators to discover and exploit the opportunities for 31P NMR studies of model and biological membranes.

He began his faculty career in the School of Medicine, University at Buffalo, supported by an NIH RCDA, during which time he was able to define the molecular basis of an essential role of cholesterol in mammalian cell membranes. In 1985, he was a visiting scientist at the CSIRO, New South Wales, Australia, and in 1988 he developed the first in a series of FASEB Summer Research Conferences on membrane structure. In 1993, and again in 2003, he was a visiting professor in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. He moved in 1997 to the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut as head of department and pursued studies of membrane protein structure. He was elected member of the Council of the Biophysical Society and chair of the Membrane Structure and Assembly subgroup that he helped form.

He was executive editor of Biochemica et Biophysica Acta Biomembranes for a decade and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He has published over 150 papers and reviews and is the author or editor of seven books.