  A feature of current membrane systems is the fact that objects and membranes
are persistent. However, this is not true in the real world. In fact, cells and
intracellular proteins have a well-defined lifetime. Inspired from these
biological facts, we define a model of systems of mobile membranes in which
each membrane and each object has a timer representing their lifetime. We show
that systems of mutual mobile membranes with and without timers have the same
computational power. An encoding of timed safe mobile ambients into systems of
mutual mobile membranes with timers offers a relationship between two
formalisms used in describing biological systems.
