International Symposium On Bioorganic Chemistry

Frontiers of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Biology covers the proceedings of the International Symposium on Frontiers of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Biology, held in Moscow and Tashkent, USSR on September 25-October 2, 1978. This symposium is devoted to a discussion of the physico-chemical basis of life processes. This book contains 56 chapters, and reflects the results in the study of peptides and proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and other biopolymers. Other chapters deal with the study of low molecular regulators, including steroids, alkaloids, and antibiotics. This book also includes discussion of the achievements in the study of genetic structures and of cellular protein synthesizing systems of the molecular basis of enzymic catalysis and of bioenergetic processes. This book will be of value to biochemists and molecular biologists.

The organic chemist is rarely satisfied by a simple "explanation" of the reactivity of organic molecules. Rather, the chemist wants to go one step further, to "control" the behavior of molecules by altering their structure in a controlled way. This is, in fact, a rather stringent definition of "understanding," as it requires the "prediction" of behavior from structure (or structure from behavior). But it also places technical demands on the chemist. He must be able to synthesize the molecules he studies, characterize them at the atomic level of structural resolution, and then measure their behaviors to the precision that his explanation demands. Biological chemistry presents special problems in this regard. Although the tools for synthesis, purification, and structural characterization are now available for manipulating rather large biological macromolecules (proteins and nucleic acids in particular), the theory supporting these manipulations is inadequate. We certainly do not know enough to control generally the behavior of biological macromolecules; still worse, it is not clear that we know enough to design synthetic molecules to expand our understanding about how reactivity in such biological macromolecules might be controlled. Starting from scratch, there are simply too many oligopeptides to make; starting from native proteins, there are simply too many structural mutations that might be introduced.

The organic chemist is rarely satisfied by a simple "explanation" of the reactivity of organic molecules. Rather, the chemist wants to go one step further, to "control" the behavior of molecules by altering their structure in a controlled way. This is, in fact, a rather stringent definition of "understanding," as it requires the "prediction" of behavior from structure (or structure from behavior). But it also places technical demands on the chemist. He must be able to synthesize the molecules he studies, characterize them at the atomic level of structural resolution, and then measure their behaviors to the precision that his explanation demands. Biological chemistry presents special problems in this regard. Although the tools for synthesis, purification, and structural characterization are now available for manipulating rather large biological macromolecules (proteins and nucleic acids in particular), the theory supporting these manipulations is inadequate. We certainly do not know enough to control generally the behavior of biological macromolecules; still worse, it is not clear that we know enough to design synthetic molecules to expand our understanding about how reactivity in such biological macromolecules might be controlled. Starting from scratch, there are simply too many oligopeptides to make; starting from native proteins, there are simply too many structural mutations that might be introduced.

This widely-praised textbook is particularly suited for advanced undergraduates or graduates in chemistry, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology. The third edition has been substantially revised to reflect new research in the field, and features a major new chapter on self-assembly, auto-organization, and molecular devices. The outstanding figures remain a highlight of the book, and were described in an earlier edition as "the best I've seen for showing the organic chemistry of biomolecules." (Quart. Rev. Biol.)