Synthetic models of cation-conducting channels

Modern channel proteins are complex in structure and marvelous in function. The earliest channels cannot possibly have been so complex but they must have functioned at some modest level. Synthetic chemists have designed a variety of novel structures with the goal of creating a mimic of channel function that is complex enough to function in a bilayer but simple enough to be understood, dissected, and modified. These synthetic model systems are the subject of this article.