ABSTRACT
Countless processes in cellular biology depend upon lipid bilayer membranes. In addition to their role in segregating and compartmentalizing subcellular components and organelles, membranes are essential to the production and storage of chemical energy and facilitate biochemical reactions via a vast array of membrane-associated proteins [Lodish et al. 1995]. The structure and functioning of many of these proteins is strongly dependent upon the bilayer environment [Haltia and Freire 1995]. Furthermore, synthetic model membrane systems have found use in varied technological and medical applications [Tien and Ottova-Leitmannova 2003]. It is not surprising that, in addition to many experimental and theoretical biophysical studies [Bloom, Evans, and Mouritsen 1991; Evans and Skalak 1980; Lipowsky and Sackmann 1995; Nagle and Tristram-Nagle 2000], extensive computational resources have been devoted to studying lipid bilayers and related systems.
