GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS

lipid membrane models, protein crystallography, thermally disordered membrane structure, protein folding, Langmuir monolayers, self-assembled monolayers, hybrid bilayer models, polymer-sup-ported tethered lipid bilayers Recent progress in submolecular level structural investigations of planar lipid model mem-branes using scattering techniques is reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the quantification of peptide/lipid and protein/lipid interactions. Floating phospholipid monolayers on aqueous sub-phases (ÓLangmuir monolayersÓ) enable full physicochemical control of a membrane mimic, thus providing unique opportunities for investigations of the interaction of peptides with biomembrane surfaces. Particular progress has been recently made with surface-sensitive diffraction methods to characterize molecularly thin protein crystal sheets. We proceed to describe (multi-) bilayer sys-tems for which the distribution of submolecular fragments has been determined providing a fully resolved picture of their thermally disordered structure using the âliquid-crystallographyÔ approach of White and coworkers. This approach has recently been extended to tackle basic problems of membrane protein folding. Applied to solid-state interfaces with a fluid or gas phase, scattering methods provide invaluable tools for the ngstrom-scale characterization of systems such diverse as uniaxially oriented proteins in molecular layers attached to self-assembled monolayers (SAMÕs), hybrid bilayer membranes (HBMÕs), or polymer-cushioned, tethered bilayer membranes