Physicochemical and Electrochemical Aspects of the Functioning of Biological Membranes

Abstract

A review is presented of the most important scientific achievements in the field of physicochemical biology of cell membranes obtained throughout the years by the Laboratory of Bioelectrochemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry that have received wide international recognition, along with the prospects for development in this scientific field. Research conducted at the Laboratory focuses on developing theoretical, physicochemical, and electrochemical ways and means of studying biological membranes. These works have made important advances in understanding the thermodynamics, mechanics, and electrostatics of membranes; the organized transport of different substances through cell membranes; phase equilibrium and lateral organization in the presence of membrane-active ions; macromolecules and proteins; and mechanisms of the topological rearrangement and behavior of excitable media. The Laboratory’s staff have proposed fundamentally new theoretical models and experimental techniques, making a substantial contribution to the development of physicochemical approaches in the relevant sections of membrane biophysics.