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Scientists identified the plasma membrane in the 1890s and its principal chemical components (lipids and proteins) by 1915. The model for plasma membrane structure, proposed in 1935 by Hugh Davson and James Danielli, was the first model to be widely accepted in the scientific community. The model was based on the plasma membrane's "railroad track" appearance in early electron micrographs. Davson and Danielli theorized that the plasma membrane's structure resembled a sandwich with the analogy of...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies

Published on: September 1, 2023

Implicit-solvent mesoscale model based on soft-core potentials for self-assembled lipid membranes.

Joel D Revalee¹, Mohamed Laradji, P B Sunil Kumar

¹Department of Physics, The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152, USA.

The Journal of Chemical Physics

|January 22, 2008

Summary

A new implicit-solvent model enables efficient simulations of lipid bilayers, revealing fluid, gel, and hexatic phases. This computational advance aids in understanding membrane behavior and dynamics.

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Area of Science:

Computational chemistry
Biophysics
Materials science

Background:

Simulating large lipid membranes requires efficient models to capture complex behaviors.
Explicit solvent models are computationally expensive, limiting simulation scale and duration.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and analyze an efficient implicit-solvent model for self-assembled lipid bilayers.
To investigate the phase behavior and transitions of lipid bilayers using molecular dynamics.

Main Methods:

Langevin molecular dynamics simulations were employed.
A novel implicit-solvent model with soft particle interactions and tail attractions was utilized.
Analysis included molecular diffusivity, order parameters, and correlation functions.

Main Results:

The model successfully simulated self-assembled lipid bilayers without explicit solvent.
Identified fluid (high temperature) and gel (Lbeta-phase, low temperature) phases.
Evidence for a hexatic phase near the melting transition was observed.
Elastic properties of the fluid phase membrane were characterized.

Conclusions:

The developed implicit-solvent model is efficient for large-scale, long-time membrane simulations.
The model accurately reproduces key lipid bilayer phases and transitions.
This approach facilitates deeper insights into membrane physics and elasticity.