Modeling membranes under a transmembrane potential.

Accurate modeling of ion transport through synthetic and biological transmembrane channels has been so far a challenging problem. We introduce here a new method that allows one to study such transport under realistic biological conditions. We present results from molecular dynamics simulations of an ion channel formed by a peptide nanotube, embedded in a lipid bilayer, and subject to transmembrane potentials generated by asymmetric distributions of ions on both sides of the membrane. We show that the method is efficient for generating ionic currents and allows us to estimate the intrinsic conductance of the channel.