Lipid bilayers self-consistent-field simulation

In this review, we have presented a molecular picture of the lipid bilayer system in relation to its permeation properties, as it appears from simulations and from self-consistent field calculations. Of course, it was not possible to go into all the details. In fact, the practicalities are always much more complicated, and the fine details are only of interest to the experts. 

Leermakers, F. A. M., Rabinovich, A. L. and Balabaev, N. K. (2003). Self-consistent field modeling of hydrated unsaturated lipid bilayers in the liquid-crystal phase and comparison to molecular dynamics simulations, Phys. Rev. E, 67, 011910. 

The previous result is an important one. It indicates that there can be yet another fruitful route to describe lipid bilayers. The idea is to consider the conformational properties of a probe molecule, and then replace all the other molecules by an external potential field (see Figure 11). This external potential may be called the mean-field or self-consistent potential, as it represents the mean behaviour of all molecules self-consistently. There are mean-field theories in many branches of science, for example (quantum) physics, physical chemistry, etc. Very often mean-field theories simplify the system to such an extent that structural as well as thermodynamic properties can be found analytically. This means that there is no need to use a computer. However, the lipid membrane problem is so complicated that the help of the computer is still needed. The method has been refined over the years to a detailed and complex framework, whose results correspond closely with those of MD simulations. The computer time needed for these calculations is however an order of 105 times less (this estimate is certainly too small when SCF calculations are compared with massive MD simulations in which up to 1000 lipids are considered). Indeed, the calculations can be done on a desktop PC with typical... 

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