Mechanism of ion transport across bilayer membranes

Introduction The facilitated transport of ions and polar molecules across biological membranes is essential for normal cell function and is also a major objective in the rapidly growing field of drug delivery. Researchers strive to simulate naturally occurring channel-forming proteins or carrier molecules. The resultant compounds may utilize endogenous peptide sequences or may be novel organic structures. This review summarizes the most recent synthetic transporters shown to be active in both model bilayers and cellular membranes.