How are proteins able to sit in the cell membrane?
Only special types of proteins can “sit” in the cell membrane. The inside of the cell membrane is highly hydrophobic, so a protein when folded with several neutral amino acids on the outside would be energetically favorable to be in the membrane. The outside edges of the membrane is hydrophillic, so a protein would want to have its charged amino acids on its ends so that they do not get stuck in the hydrophobic region of the membrane. If you look from the side, the hydrophillic charged amino acids of the protein should stick out of the membrane, and the hydrophobic neutral amino acids of the protein would be inbetween the bilayer.
