Bioorganic Chemistry: Peptides and Proteins

Bioorganic chemistry has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, enriching the disciplines of biology and chemistry and providing important insights into the workings of biological systems at a molecular level. Recently, this growing field has witnessed some very exciting results inapplying design and synthesis techniques to many problems in molecular biology. Bridging the gap between chemistry and biology, Topics in Bioorganic and Biological Chemistry: A Series of Books in Support of Teaching and Research will serve the needs of the many graduate students and researchers whowork in and study this discipline. This second volume, Bioorganic Chemistry: Peptides and Proteins, provides a broad overview of the topic. It covers the chemical synthesis of peptides and proteins and modern methods for analysis of protein structure and folding, reviews the ways in which proteins function as catalysts, andcompares enzymes with antibody catalysts. The text is comprised of 14 chapters, making it ideal for use in a one-semester, graduate level special topic course in peptides and proteins. Each chapter begins with an introduction that includes basic principles, a summary of key findings which support current research in the field, and an overview of current research activity. The remainder of each chapter deals in greater detail with a number of recent studies that illustrate thenature of ongoing activity in the field. All chapters have been written by leading researchers, and numerous references are given. Topics in Bioorganic and Biological Chemistry is the first series specifically designed to facilitate the education of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.The first three volumes in the series, Bioorganic Chemistry: Nucleic Acids, Peptides and Proteins, and Carbohydrates, will also prove helpful to research workers who wish to gain familiarity with specific research topics.