Cell membranes play a vital role in energy conversion, information processing and signal transduction. This is owing to the fact that most physiological activities involve lipid bilayer- based receptor-ligand interactions. Some of the outstanding examples are ATP synthesis, ion transport, antigen-antibody binding, and gated channels. One approach to study these interactions in vitro is facilitated by employing artificial BLMs (bilayer lipid membranes). Our current efforts have been focused on ion and/or molecular selectivity and specificity using recently available self-assembled BLMs on solid support (i.e. s-BLMs) which, with their enhanced stability, greatly aid in research areas of membrane biochemistry, biophysics, and cell biology as well as in biosensor designs and molecular devices development. In this report, our recent work along with the experiments done in collaboration with others on s-BLMs are presented.