  We introduce the BioBeta Framework, a meta-model for both protein-level and
membrane-level interactions of living cells. This formalism aims to provide a
formal setting where to encode, compare and merge models at different
abstraction levels; in particular, higher-level (e.g. membrane) activities can
be given a formal biological justification in terms of low-level (i.e.,
protein) interactions. A BioBeta specification provides a protein signature
together a set of protein reactions, in the spirit of the kappa-calculus.
Moreover, the specification describes when a protein configuration triggers one
of the only two membrane interaction allowed, that is "pinch" and "fuse". In
this paper we define the syntax and semantics of BioBeta, analyse its
properties, give it an interpretation as biobigraphical reactive systems, and
discuss its expressivity by comparing with kappa-calculus and modelling
significant examples. Notably, BioBeta has been designed after a bigraphical
metamodel for the same purposes. Hence, each instance of the calculus
corresponds to a bigraphical reactive system, and vice versa (almost).
Therefore, we can inherith the rich theory of bigraphs, such as the automatic
construction of labelled transition systems and behavioural congruences.
