Description: Membrane permeability is fundamental to all cell biologists and many biochemists.The cell exists as a closed unit, with the lipid bilayer a nearly impenetrable barrier. Import and export depend upon a number of sophisticated mechanisms, like active transport, endocytosis, exocytosis, and passive diffusion. These systems are critical for the cell's normal physiological functions or "housekeeping; ' Knowledge of cellular access mechanisms is critical for drug design -- if a chemical cannot gain entry to the cell, it will not exert its effect. Additionally, these existing transport mechanisms are taken advantage of by toxic microbes (such as cholera or ptomaine).

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