Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly

About Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly

About Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly

Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly (abbreviated ABLSA) is an ongoing book series published by Elsevier that surveys current research on biological membranes and lipid self-assembly. It is important to characterise this publication accurately: despite appearing in journal directories, ABLSA is not a journal with rolling article publication. It is a serial book series — each year one or more edited thematic or institutional volumes are released, each containing invited chapters by specialists. The series carries the ISSN 2451-9634 and is the direct continuation of the earlier Elsevier series Advances in Planar Lipid Bilayers and Liposomes, whose scope it broadened beyond planar model membranes to the full range of curved, three-dimensional lipid architectures. By 2025 the series had reached Volume 42, published that year.

The series is overseen by three serial editors: Professor Aleš Iglič of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Professor Michael Rappolt of the University of Leeds (United Kingdom), and Professor Patricia Losada-Pérez of the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). All three are established researchers in membrane biophysics, soft matter and physical chemistry. Individual volumes are typically 100–170 pages long and contain five to eight chapters; for example, Volume 42 (2025) spans pages 1–166 and includes chapters on biomembrane biophysics and lipid self-assembly by international author teams, while Volume 38 (2023) spans 118 pages with chapters from Slovenian, Czech, French, Argentine and Belgian groups.

Aims and Scope

According to Elsevier's official description, the vision of ABLSA is to "embrace lipid-based hot topics ranging from fundamental questions on the role of biomembranes for life, all the way to designing novel lipid-self assemblies delivering solutions for consumer products, bioenergy and health". The series provides a platform for both renowned and early-career biomembrane researchers worldwide. Its subject matter deliberately extends beyond the planar lipid bilayers and liposomes of its predecessor to cover a wide range of non-planar, curved three-dimensional structures, including:

• Micelles of every shape and size — spherical, cylindrical, wormlike — and their formation, stability and applications.
• Liquid-crystalline mesophases of lipids: lamellar, hexagonal, cubic and sponge phases, and their structural characterisation by scattering techniques.
• Biological membranes and model membranes: giant unilamellar vesicles, supported bilayers, asymmetric artificial lipid membranes and other biomembrane models.
• Hierarchical lipid architectures found in living systems and applied sciences, from extracellular vesicles to lipid nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery.
• Theoretical and computational membrane science: molecular dynamics and coarse-grained simulations of membrane self-assembly, fusion, fission and remodelling.
• Membrane-active processes: electroporation models from molecular to tissue level, membrane protein reconstitution, tubular membrane structures, and cytotoxic protein assemblies in lipid vesicles.
• Translational topics: lipid nanoparticles as drug and gene delivery systems (a subject of major recent growth), phototoxicity and theranostic applications of functionalised microbeads, and clinically relevant diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

The series publishes two kinds of volumes: (i) themed volumes organised around a timely topic, and (ii) institutional volumes showcasing the research of a particular group or institute — for example, volumes guest-edited by leading figures such as Reinhard Lipowsky. Chapters may present original research, comprehensive reviews, or a combination of both, and are written by world-leading experts alongside younger researchers, in the words of the publisher's key-features description.

Publication Details

Editorial Information

The serial editorship brings together complementary expertise. Aleš Iglič is a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, known for theoretical work on membrane shapes, vesicle adhesion and the physics of charged membranes. Michael Rappolt, at the School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, is a specialist in lipid mesophase structure studied by X-ray scattering, with applications spanning food science and pharmaceutical formulation. Patricia Losada-Pérez at the Université libre de Bruxelles works on thermodynamics and nanocalorimetry of soft-matter and biomembrane systems. Together they commission volumes, invite guest editors for themed issues, and shape the series' strategic direction — including its explicit openness to early-career researchers and to institutional volumes that give research groups a collective showcase.

Indexing and Abstracting

Because ABLSA is a book series, it is not indexed as a journal in the Web of Science Journal Citation Reports or Scopus journal rankings, and it carries no Journal Impact Factor or CiteScore in the journal sense. Individual chapters, however, receive DOIs (for example, 10.1016/bs.abl.2025.07.005 for a chapter in Volume 42), appear on ScienceDirect with abstracts, and are indexed by scholarly search services including Google Scholar and Scopus at the chapter level. Volumes carry ISBNs (e.g., 978-0-443-42823-4 for Volume 42; 978-0-323-99246-6 for Volume 38; 978-0-12-820968-4 for Volume 32) alongside the series ISSN. Libraries catalogue the series as a serial monograph. Researchers should cite chapters as book chapters with their DOIs, not as journal articles.

Metrics and Standing

No officially verifiable journal-style metrics (Impact Factor, CiteScore, SJR) apply to this book series, and none are claimed by the publisher. Its scholarly standing is better judged by:

• Longevity and continuity: more than forty volumes published, continuing an even longer predecessor series — a sustained record in a specialised field.
• Editorial stature: serial editors and guest editors drawn from leading membrane-biophysics groups in Europe and beyond.
• Chapter-level impact: chapters on high-growth topics — lipid nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery, extracellular vesicles, membrane simulations — attract citations in the fast-moving nanomedicine and biophysics literatures.
• Publisher platform: publication on ScienceDirect gives every chapter global discoverability, DOI registration and abstract-level indexing.

Metric-aggregator websites sometimes display journal-style scores for this title; such figures should be treated with caution because they arise from automated processing of a book series rather than from official journal indexing.

Guidance for Contributors and Readers

For readers: Volumes are available through ScienceDirect (institutional subscription or chapter purchase) and as print books via the Elsevier shop. The "all volumes" listing on ScienceDirect is the most reliable route to browse the back catalogue. Abstracts of all chapters are freely visible, which makes it easy to assess relevance before purchasing.

For prospective contributors: ABLSA does not run an open manuscript-submission system. Chapters are by invitation from the serial editors or from guest editors of themed volumes. Researchers with an idea for a future theme or an institutional volume are explicitly invited by the publisher to contact the serial editors — the official Elsevier book-series page provides contact routes (including the editors' institutional email addresses). Proposals should explain the theme's timeliness, the proposed chapter lineup, and the guest editors' qualifications. If you are interested in contributing a single chapter, the practical route is to respond to a call from a themed volume's guest editors or to approach the serial editors with a concise proposal.

Citation practice: Cite chapters as book chapters with DOIs, e.g., "Otosu T., Yamaguchi S. In: Iglič A., Rappolt M., Losada-Pérez P., editors. Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly, Vol. 42. Elsevier, 2025, pp. 1–23. doi:10.1016/bs.abl.2025.09.001".

Representative Volume Contents

To illustrate the series' range, consider two recent volumes. Volume 42 (2025), edited by Iglič, Rappolt and Losada-Pérez, contains seven chapters spanning spectroscopy of biomembranes, neutron and X-ray scattering studies of lipid assemblies, computational modelling of membrane systems, and functional lipid nanomaterials. Volume 38 (2023) includes chapters on electroporation models from the molecular to the tissue level, the metamorphic transformation of a water-soluble monomeric protein into an oligomeric transmembrane pore, tubular membrane structures, phototoxicity of mesoporous microbeads with theranostic potential, and the reconstruction of cytotoxic bacterial protein assemblies in lipid vesicles — a mix that demonstrates the series' characteristic blend of fundamental biophysics and application-oriented research. Earlier volumes, such as Volume 24 (2016), treated topics including how lipid cores affect lipid nanoparticles as drug and gene delivery systems, a theme that has only grown in importance with the clinical success of lipid-nanoparticle-based therapeutics.

History: From Planar Bilayers to Self-Assembly

The series' predecessor, Advances in Planar Lipid Bilayers and Liposomes, focused on planar model membrane systems and liposome science. The retitling to Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly marked a deliberate broadening: the field had moved decisively toward curved and topologically complex structures — micelles, vesicles, cubic phases, membrane nanotubes — and toward the physics of self-assembly as a unifying principle. The new title also signalled the series' ambition to connect fundamental membrane biophysics with applications in consumer products, bioenergy and health, reflecting the editors' view that lipid self-assembly is both a core question in the physics of life and a platform technology. The continuity of ISSN 2451-9634 across the retitling means library holdings and citations remain unified under a single serial record. Editorially, the transition preserved the series' core identity — invited, peer-reviewed chapters by specialists — while widening the topical net to match where the science had moved. For librarians, the practical consequence is straightforward: standing orders and catalogue records set up under the old title continue seamlessly, and the ScienceDirect book-series page presents the entire run, old and new titles alike, in one chronological listing.

Upcoming Themes and Research Directions

The publisher's official book-series page lists forthcoming volume themes that illustrate where the editors see the field heading: Asymmetric Artificial Lipid Membranes and other Biomembrane Models, Artificial and Minimal Cells, Membrane Simulations, and Dynamics of Vesicles and Cell Membranes. Each reflects a frontier. Asymmetric membranes — bilayers whose two leaflets differ in lipid composition, mimicking the asymmetry of real plasma membranes — are a technically demanding but biologically essential model system. Artificial and minimal cells, built from the bottom up using lipid compartments, sit at the intersection of synthetic biology and origins-of-life research. Membrane simulations, from atomistic molecular dynamics to coarse-grained and continuum models, have become indispensable partners to experiment. And the dynamics of vesicles and cell membranes — shape transformations, fission and fusion, adhesion — remains the core physics of the field. Researchers working on these topics are natural contributors to future volumes.

Readership and Community

The stated readership comprises experts in the chemistry, physics and biology of lipid micro- and nanostructures and biological membranes, together with non-specialists working at the interdisciplinary front. In practice this means biophysicists, physical chemists, soft-matter physicists, membrane biologists, pharmaceutical scientists developing lipid-based formulations, and food scientists working with lipid mesophases. The series' publisher description emphasises that it provides "a global platform for a broad community of experimental and theoretical researchers studying cell membranes, lipid model membranes, and lipid self-assemblies from the micro- to the nanoscale". The deliberate inclusion of early-career researchers as chapter authors — explicitly mentioned in the publisher's key features — makes the volumes a useful window onto emerging groups as well as established ones.

Position Among Membrane-Science Publications

Researchers navigating membrane-science literature encounter several serial publications, and ABLSA occupies a distinctive niche. Primary research appears in journals such as Biophysical Journal, Soft Matter, Langmuir and Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Biomembranes; these carry the day-to-day experimental record. Broad review journals (Chemical Reviews, Annual Review of Biophysics) publish occasional membrane overviews. ABLSA sits between these: more specialised and more sustained than occasional reviews, yet more curated and forward-looking than primary journals. Its closest relatives are other Elsevier serial volumes in the physical and life sciences. For a research group wanting a citable, peer-reviewed, archival record of a coherent research programme — a set of linked chapters rather than scattered papers — an institutional volume in ABLSA is one of the few available vehicles.

Detailed Contributor Guidance

Proposing a themed volume: Contact the serial editors with a one- to two-page proposal covering the theme's scientific rationale and timeliness, a provisional chapter list with confirmed or likely authors, the proposed guest editors and their qualifications, and an indicative timeline. Themes that bridge fundamental membrane physics with applications (health, energy, consumer products) align well with the series' stated vision.

Proposing an institutional volume: These showcase the membrane-related research of a single institute, consortium or long-running collaboration. The proposal should explain the institution's track record in the area, the coherence of the proposed chapters, and how the volume advances the field beyond a mere collection of group publications. The volume guest-edited around Reinhard Lipowsky's research programme is the cited exemplar.

Chapter preparation: Chapters undergo editorial review by the volume's editors and the serial editors. Authors should follow Elsevier's book-chapter production guidelines (reference style, figure resolution, permissions for reproduced material). Because chapters receive individual DOIs and abstracts on ScienceDirect, they should be written to be discoverable and citable as standalone contributions, with informative titles and abstracts.

Open access: Authors wishing to make their chapter open access should discuss options and any associated fees with the editors and Elsevier at the proposal stage, as arrangements vary by volume and funder requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly a journal?

No. It is an Elsevier book series publishing edited volumes (typically one to two per year), each containing invited chapters. It is the continuation of Advances in Planar Lipid Bilayers and Liposomes.

Who are the editors?

The serial editors are Aleš Iglič (University of Ljubljana), Michael Rappolt (University of Leeds) and Patricia Losada-Pérez (Université libre de Bruxelles). Individual volumes may additionally have guest editors.

Can I submit a manuscript?

There is no open submission system. Chapters are invited. If you have an idea for a themed or institutional volume, contact the serial editors via the official Elsevier book-series page with a proposal.

Does the series have an Impact Factor?

No. Book series are not covered by the Journal Citation Reports. Assess the series by volume continuity, editorial stature and chapter-level citations instead.

Are chapters open access?

Generally chapters are subscription-access on ScienceDirect, with abstracts freely visible. Open-access options for individual chapters depend on author or funder arrangements.

What is the ISSN?

2451-9634. Individual volumes also carry ISBNs.

How do I cite a chapter?

As a book chapter with its DOI (format 10.1016/bs.abl.YYYY...), including volume number, editors, publisher and page range.

What topics does the series cover?

Biomembranes, model membranes, micelles, liquid-crystalline lipid mesophases, membrane simulations, lipid nanoparticles for drug/gene delivery, extracellular vesicles, electroporation, and membrane-active proteins and peptides.

What is the difference between a themed and an institutional volume?

A themed volume gathers chapters from many groups around a timely scientific topic (for example membrane simulations or asymmetric membranes). An institutional volume showcases the research programme of a single institute or long-standing collaboration, giving it a collective archival record.

Where can I browse all volumes?

The "all bookseries volumes" listing on ScienceDirect provides the complete back catalogue with chapter abstracts, DOIs and page ranges for every volume.

Is the predecessor series still cited?

Yes. Chapters published under the former title Advances in Planar Lipid Bilayers and Liposomes remain validly cited under that title; the ISSN 2451-9634 unifies the serial record across the retitling.

Who should read the series?

Biophysicists, physical chemists, soft-matter physicists, membrane biologists, pharmaceutical formulation scientists and food scientists working with lipid systems — plus graduate students needing authoritative, up-to-date reviews that primary journals rarely provide in one place.

How long is a typical volume?

Recent volumes run to roughly 110–170 pages with five to eight chapters (Volume 38: 118 pages; Volume 42: 166 pages).