Importance of Biomembrane Transport

The study of biomembrane transport requires the consideration of its biophysics and physical chemistry, as well as its biology. Moreover, biomembrane transport is central to the functioning of all multicellular organisms regardless of whether it is considered at the subcellular, tissue, or systemic levels of their organization. Similarly, the study of biomembrane transport is as legitimate a component of investigations into mechanisms of development and differentiation as it is into the functioning of fully formed tissues and organs. Hence, there is scarcely a biological journal or a subsection within such journals from the biophysical to the evolutionary levels of investigation that does not contain articles on the subject of biomembrane transport. By analogy, numerous proteins have evolved over billions of years to catalyze transport of solutes and the solvent across the barriers formed by biomembranes. As the demand for different types of transport increased owing to evolution of numerous as well as more complex species, the needed transport processes also evolved. Similarly, as investigations have led to a fuller understanding of biology, the disciplinary boundaries that once helped to define ourselves now help more easily to recognize the various aspects of biology to which unfolding work may apply. Moreover, the contributions of these biomembrane transport processes to the physiological functioning of cells and organisms is rooted in the physical and chemical nature of biomembrane barriers and how the barriers may change in various physiological and pathophysiological conditions.