ABSTRACT
Electrostatic interactions between lipid membranes and macroions such as DNA, proteins, and peptides are fundamental to the functioning of every living cell and play a role in many technological and pharmaceutical applications. Among the challenges in modeling electrostatic interactions that involve fluid-like membranes are to properly account for the in-plane mobility of the charged lipids and for the ability of a lipid layer to undergo elastic deformations or even topological transformations. This chapter focuses on the application of mean-field approaches, also known as Poisson-Boltzmann theory, and extensions thereof to model the adsorption of protein onto membranes, the stability of cationic lipid-DNA complexes, and the formation of membrane pores induced by amphipathic peptides.
