The International Symposium on Membrane Biology is organized by the sub-society of Membrane and Cellular Biophysics in The Biophysical Society of China (http://www.bsc.org.cn), and co-sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, the State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Engineering, the 973 program on Structure and Functional Studies of Biomembrane and Membrane Proteins and the 973 program on Function and Regulation Mechanism of Lipid Metabolism Proteins. This symposium will be mainly focused on membrane trafficking, molecular bioenergetics and membrane lipid metabolism.