Handbook of Lipid Bilayers

Now in its second edition, the Handbook of Lipid Bilayers is a groundbreaking work that remains the field’s definitive text and only comprehensive source for primary physicochemical data relating to phospholipid bilayers. Along with basic thermodynamic data, coverage includes both dynamic and structural properties of phospholipid bilayers. It is an indispensable reference for users of bilayer model membranes and liposome delivery systems and for those interested in the biophysics of membrane structure.

Each chapter in the second edition contains considerable amounts of explanation and elaboration, including, in many cases, extensive analysis of structural connections between the data.

New in the Second Edition:

• Chapters on crystal structures of phospholipids include new structures and more comprehensive data on bond lengths, bond angles, and torsion angles—and all coordinates are Cartesian
• Wide-angle data is indexed whenever possible to characterize chain-packing modes in gel and crystalline lamellar phases
• Low-angle data are analyzed in terms of the lipid and water thicknesses
• Headgroup separations in electron density profiles for phospholipids are included, and a separate section is devoted to the in-depth analysis of electron density profiles that provides the most detailed structural information on fluid lamellar phases
• Phase diagrams of phospholipid mixtures are vastly expanded and have been redrawn in standardized format to aid intercomparison. Cholesterol, including ternary systems, is now featured.
• New sections on titration calorimetry, and much extended data on the temperature dependence of transfer rates
• The greatly expanded chapter on bilayer–bilayer interactions features new and detailed information on the components of interbilayer pressures

Derek Marsh is a member of the research staff of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen. Dr. Marsh obtained his B.A. degree in physics from the University in Oxford in 1967 and his D.Phil. degree from the same institution in 1971. He worked subsequently at the Astbury Department of Biophysics, University of Leeds; at the Biology Division of the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa; at the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen; and at the Biochemistry Department of the University of Oxford, before moving permanently to Gottingen in 1975.

Dr. Marsh's research interests centre on studies of the structure and dynamics of biological membranes and of lipid bilayer model membranes, using different biophysical techniques, the principal being spin-label electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy.