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The beauty of simplicity in membrane biology

For the past 40 years, minimal reconstituted systems have helped cell biologists to understand the mechanisms that underlie membrane traffic. Having progressed from minimal synthetic and cell-derived ensembles to direct comparison with living systems, reconstitution is poised for ever more precise and informative understanding of membrane biology.

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Fig. 1: Methods and classes of reconstitution in membrane biology and traffic.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through grants R35GM139531(J.C.S.), R01GM075252 (T.K.), and R35GM130386 (T.K.) and the Welch Foundation through grant F-2047 (J.C.S.).

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Correspondence to Jeanne C. Stachowiak.

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Stachowiak, J.C., Kirchhausen, T. The beauty of simplicity in membrane biology. Nat Cell Biol 24, 1682–1685 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-022-01015-6

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