Fundamentals of Biological Membranes: the Singer-Nicolson model and recent modifications. Lipid rafts and caveolae.

• Membrane Lipids: chemical composition. Transbilayer and in-plane heterogeneity. Flippases, floppases, and scramblases.

• Membrane Proteins: mechanisms of synthesis, trafficking, and topogenesis. The ‘positive-inside’ rule. GPI and fatty-acyl linkages. The secretory pathway and molecular mechanisms of endo- and exocytosis. Effect of botulinum toxin.

• Membrane Receptors: ligand-gated ion channels, G-protein coupled receptors, and catalytic receptors. Signalling cascades. Membrane receptors as allosteric proteins. Effects of cholera and pertussis toxins. Thermodynamic cycles and the 'Principle of Detailed Balance'.

Soluble Receptors: regulation of gene transcription by retinoic acid and steroid/thyroid hormones. Transcription factors as another example of allosteric proteins. The membrane-embedded estrogen receptor as an intracellular receptor.

Transport of Ions across Biological Membranes: ion channels, ion pumps, transporters, cotransporters, exchangers, and the underlying physicochemical principles.

Experimental Methods for the Study of Membrane Permeabilities: reconstitution of ion channels in artificial bilayers and the patch-clamp technique. Macroscopic and single-channel currents. Current-voltage relationships. Principles underlying the study of ion channels at the single-molecule level.

Transport of Water and the Regulation of Cell Volume: osmotic pressure and the Van't Hoff equation. Cellular responses to acute and chronic osmotic challenges. Aquaporins and TRPV channels.

Transepithelial Transport of Solutes and Water: transcellular and paracellular pathways. Tight junctions (claudin proteins), adhering junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes. Fundamentals of epithelial electrophysiology.

Electrical Excitability and Action Potentials: voltage-dependent ion channels and cable properties of neurons. Mechanistic and quantitative aspects. Multiple sclerosis and the myelin sheath.

Synaptic Transmission at the Neuromuscular Junction: endplate potential and endplate currents. Synthesis, packing, release, and clearance of acetylcholine. Presynaptic voltage-dependent Ca²⁺ channels, the presynaptic exocytotic machinery, and postsynaptic receptors. Diseases of neuromuscular transmission.

Muscle Physiology: mechanical properties of muscle and excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle. Voltage-dependent Ca²⁺ channels, ryanodine and IP₃ receptors, and the sarcoplasmic-reticulum Ca²⁺-ATPase.

Synaptic Transmission in the Nervous System: fundamentals of presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms of short-term and long-term synaptic plasticity.