In general, 1 exhibits the weakest activity, with 7 and 9, supplied as either single agents or as a 1:1 enantiomeric mixture, shown to cause the greatest change in current, except at a concentration of 0.25 mM, where 3 and 5 show greater activity. The increased activity of 7 and 9 within these planar bilayer patch clamp experiments correlate with the general increased activity of these SSAs as both anticancer and antimicrobial agents. Interestingly, although there may be a time dependent, sequential movement through Event type (Figure ), for most experiments conducted this is not the case, as demonstrated in Figure . Here SSA induced change in current with respect to time, is also shown to be reversable. This leads us to propose the following hypothesis: A critical concentration of a particular SSA is required to induce any change in current, due to membrane disruption events. As the local concentration of SSA at the surface of, or permeating into the membrane, increases, the degree of membrane disruption increases, resulting in an increase in current. Using this hypothesis, a decrease in current with respect to time would also indicate a time dependent decrease in local concentration of SSA present at the surface of, or within the phospholipid bilayer. These membrane disruption events, resulting in both increases and decreases in current with respect to time, may also report on the local concentration of SSA present on/in the phospholipid membrane, providing evidence for the flow of SSAs from one side of the phospholipid bilayer to the other, and then away from the bilayer into the bulk solution. This process decreases the effective concentration of an SSA at/in the phospholipid bilayer, enabling the membrane to 'heal', resulting in a decrease in current observed with increasing time. Further analysis of these data enabled the identification of ion channel/pore like behaviour, two examples of which are provided in Figure . These data, extracted from different patch clamp experimental data sets support the hypothesis that SSAs can form organised ion channel/pore like structures that transverse the phospholipid bilayer, facilitating the movement of ions. Although demonstrating events greater in magnitude than the majority of synthetic or naturally occurring ion channels/pores, repetitive step changes in current can clearly be identified, a typical characteristic for the opening/shutting of single ion channels/pores. Numerous examples of this ion pore/channel-like behaviour were identified in the wider SSA patch clamp data set, some of which have been further detailed within the ESI (Section S22 † ). A cartoon summarising these processes is provided in Figure .