The chapters in the two volumes of Biomembrane Protocols are broadly devoted to the methodologies involved in the structural and
functional characterization of cell membranes. In many cases, a study
of a particular membrane presupposes that it can be isolated by dis-
ruption of the cells and fractionation of the resulting homogenate,
and then identified unambiguously. The early chapters of this volume,
Biomembrane Protocols: I. Isolation and Analysis, are concerned with
this fractionation process. Later chapters are concerned with the deter-
mination of composition, whereas in the second volume, Biomembrane
Protocols: ll. Architecture and Function, the methods associated with
architecture and function predominate.