Lipids, Membranes and Vesicle Trafficking

Lipid and Membrane Structure and Function

• Biochemistry Online: An Approach Based on Chemical Logic - Biochemistry within the framework of chemical principles and logic. (Henry Jakubowski, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University)
  • Dynamics of Membrane Lipids
  • Lipids in Water: Structure
  • Lipids in Water: Thermodynamics
  • Lipid Structure
  • Passive and Facilitated Diffusion
  • Review: Thermodynamics
  • Why do Single Chain Amphiphiles form Micelles not Bilayers, and Double Chain Amphiphiles from Bilayers and not Micelles?
• Biofundamentals - Lipids and Membranes (Beginner's Level)
• The Biology Project: Cell Biology: Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes and Viruses - Tutorial on the organization of these different forms of life and illustrations of eukaryotic organelles. (University of Arizona) (Beginner's Level)
• Cell Biology Web Pages - Text- and image-based overviews of cell and organelle structure and function. (Gwen V. Childs, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) (Just above Beginner's Level)
  • The Cell Membrane
  • An Electron Microscopy View of Membranes
• Cyberlipid Center - Resource devoted to all aspects of lipid science for students, teachers, scientists and technicians. (C. Leray)
• The Lipid Library - Extensive site with information on structure and function of lipids as well as analytical data. (William W. Christie, Scottish Crop Research Institute)
• The Medical Biochemistry Page: Metabolism of Lipids (Michael W. King, Indiana University School of Medicine)
• On-Line Biology Book - Information and illustrations by M.J. Farabee. (Beginner's Level)
  • Cells I: Origins
  • Cells II: Cellular Organization
  • Transport In and Out of Cells
• Structure of Fluid Lipid Bilayers - An excellent overview. (White Lab, University of California, Irvine)
• Wikipedia - Free online encyclopedia with basic overviews. (Beginner's Level)
  • Cholesterol
  • Fatty Acid
  • Lipid

Lipid Databases

• Lipid Molecular Structure Database (LMSD)
• LipidBank for Web Database

Membrane Dynamics and Vesicle Trafficking

• Cell Biology Web Pages - Text- and image-based overviews of cell and organelle structure and function. (Gwen V. Childs, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) (Just above Beginner's Level)
  • The Cell Membrane
  • Epithelial Polarity
  • Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis
• Home of the Synaptic Vesicle - A small repository of synaptic protein information.
• Kimball's Biology Pages: Endocytosis - Basic information on endocytosis. (Beginner's Level)
• Kinesin Function: Vesicle Transport and Organelle Movement - Information on the role of kinesin in vesicle transport (from the Kinesin Home Page).
• Presynaptic Proteins, Synaptic Vesicle Docking and Membrane Fusion - Information on SNAPs and SNAREs. (Neuromuscular Disease Center, Washington University School of Medicine)

See also the Organelles page.

Membrane Proteins

Discussion Groups

• BioChemWeb.org Discussion Board - Discussions and questions/answers for scientists and students.

• CYTONET/bionet.cellbiol.cytonet - Usenet newsgroup for investigators researching the cytoskeleton, plasma membrane, and plant and fungal cell walls. (Usenet newsgroup archives from BIOSCI/bionet; can also be accessed through Google Groups: bionet)

See also the Discussion Groups section of the General Resources and Tutorials page.

Labs Studying Lipids, Membranes or Vesicle Trafficking