Many nutrients that a cell needs are large and composed of lipid-insoluble molecules. These do not easily cross cell walls. In order to transport these large hydrophilic permeants, cells have specialized membrane-embedded proteins called carriers that by a conformational change, transport a specific permeant from one side of the membrane to the other. This mechanism is called facilitated diffusion.

In this talk we will study the mechanisms of facilitated diffusion from a mathematical perspective. Our main goal is to categorize each possible physiological situation with the appropriate mathematical model that fits the available data and known physiological constraints.