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How We Came to Understand the “Tumultuous Chemical Heterogeneity” of the Lipid Bilayer Membrane

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Abstract

The path to our modern understanding of the structure of the lipid bilayer membrane is a long one that can be traced from today perhaps as far back as Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century. Here, I provide a personal account of one of the important steps in that path, the description of the “Complete Structure” of a hydrated, fluid phase dioleoyl phosphatidylcholine bilayer by the joint refinement of neutron and X-ray diffraction data by Stephen White and his colleagues.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA

    William C. Wimley

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Correspondence to William C. Wimley.

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Wimley, W.C. How We Came to Understand the “Tumultuous Chemical Heterogeneity” of the Lipid Bilayer Membrane. J Membrane Biol 253, 185–190 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-020-00126-1

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