Preface
During the past few years, a whole collection of new methods has been developed permitting the study of natural and model membranes with details never achieved before. Application of single-molecule fluorescence or scanning force microscopies has revealed a picture with unprecedented resolution on the organization of lipids and proteins in membranes, including in some cases access to time-resolved aspects. Different techniques have been developed to attach membranes in solid supports and make them available for a detailed space-resolved exploration of features such as lateral organization and packing, thickness, lipid and protein dynamics, lipid-protein interactions, etc.
Jesús Pérez-Gil
Jesús Pérez-Gil is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Universidad Complutense in Madrid (Spain). After getting his Ph. D. on Biochemistry by Universidad Complutense, he made post-doctoral stays at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s (Canada) and at the Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie in Göttingen (Germany), where he approached the study of organization and lipid-protein interactions in models of the pulmonary surfactant system. Research in the laboratory of Prof. Pérez-Gil in Madrid has been focused during the last 20 years in the study of the assembly of pulmonary surfactant lipid/protein complexes, the interactions and molecular mechanisms of hydrophobic surfactant proteins and their role in optimizing respiratory biophysics. A main part of Prof. Pérez-Gil’s research has required application and development of surface chemistry methodologies such as epifluorescence and atomic force microscopies or far-UV and infrared spectroscopies, on membranes, interfacial films and supported lipid and lipid-protein layers.
