These pages require JavaScript to be enabled

Lipid bilayer model

A model of a small portion of lipid bilayer is shown here.
You can move it at will by dragging the mouse pointer, in order to better appreciate its three-dimensional structure.  

Lipids forming this bilayer are phosphatidylcholine molecules with a saturated fatty acid (palmitic acid) and a monounsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid).

Oxygen Nitrogen
Carbon Phosphorus
Carbon in palmitic
Carbon in oleic

You can also see the molecules that are contacting the bilayer (except for a part of them, that have been removed to allow seing the surface of the lipid bilayer).

This simplified section of bilayer has been extracted from Biomodel-2.
It includes a simulation by molecular dynamics of the phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayer in water, performed by
H. Heller, M. Schaefer y K. Schulten (J Phys Chem 97:8343-60, 1993) Theoretical Biophysics Group, Beckmann Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.