The invention provides tandem facial amphiphiles for biochemical manipulations and characterization of membrane proteins, such as intrinsic membrane proteins. Members of this new family display favorable behavior with several membrane proteins. These amphiphiles can form relatively small micelles, and small changes in amphiphile chemical structures can result in large changes in their physical properties. The tandem facial amphiphiles can be used to aid the solubilization, isolation, purification, stabilization, crystallization, and/or structural determination of membrane proteins.