Simple models for biomembrane structure and dynamics

Simulation of biomembranes over length and time scales relevant to cellular biology is not currently feasible with molecular dynamics including full atomic detail. Barring an unforeseen revolution in the computer industry, this situation will not change for many decades. We present two coarse grained simulation models for biomembranes that treat water implicitly (i.e. no water molecules appear in our simulations. The hydrophobic effect, hydrodynamics and related properties are approximately included without simulation of solvent). These models enable the study of systems and phenomena previously intractable to simulation. The influence of membrane bound proteins on lipid ordering and the diffusion of membrane bound proteins is discussed.