Cellular membrane biology is a major area of research. Membrane proteins function as receptors, ion channels, or transporters, while the lipids provide not just a barrier between aqueous compartments, but also serve as signals. Lipids and proteins combine in as yet not fully understood ways to establish and maintain membrane organization and specific membrane domains. This meeting will address major questions in membrane biology that remain unanswered, including the structure of membrane proteins (we only know ~100 structures, but 25% of all proteins are membrane proteins!), the mechanisms driving membrane organization and curvature, mechanisms of organellar biogenesis and the transport between organelles, and how membranes undergo fusion and fission. In addition, the meeting will cover emerging techniques. A major goal of the meeting is to bring together cell biologists, biophysicists and theoretical biologists, which in the past had little interaction.
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