Molecular Description Of Biological Membrane Components By Computer Aided Conformational Analysis

The goal of these two volumes is to help fill the gap between theory and experiment in membrane science. This is the only work available today which covers the domain of computer-aided conformational analyses of membranes. Written in a detailed, yet comprehensive manner, this book uses the semi-empirical approach as a way to give a molecular description of the membrane structure in organized systems. This interesting work establishes the validity and quality of the prediction by making a permanent comparison with the experimental data. This reference aims to use this comparison to open a new avenue in the molecular description of the biological membrane. Those involved with biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, and biology will find these volumes interesting and informative.

The goal of these two volumes is to help fill the gap between theory and experiment in membrane science. This is the only work available today which covers the domain of computer-aided conformational analyses of membranes. Written in a detailed, yet comprehensive manner, this book uses the semi-empirical approach as a way to give a molecular description of the membrane structure in organized systems. This interesting work establishes the validity and quality of the prediction by making a permanent comparison with the experimental data. This reference aims to use this comparison to open a new avenue in the molecular description of the biological membrane. Those involved with biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, and biology will find these volumes interesting and informative.

The goal of these two volumes is to help fill the gap between theory and experiment in membrane science. This is the only work available today which covers the domain of computer-aided conformational analyses of membranes. Written in a detailed, yet comprehensive manner, this book uses the semi-empirical approach as a way to give a molecular description of the membrane structure in organized systems. This interesting work establishes the validity and quality of the prediction by making a permanent comparison with the experimental data. This reference aims to use this comparison to open a new avenue in the molecular description of the biological membrane. Those involved with biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, and biology will find these volumes interesting and informative.

First published in 1990, the goal of these two volumes is to help fill the gap between theory and experiment in membrane science. Those involved with biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, and biology will find these volumes interesting and informative.

Structure and Function of Biological Membranes explains the membrane phenomena at the molecular level through the use of biochemical and biophysical approaches. The book is an in-depth study of the structure and function of membranes. It is divided into three main parts. The first part provides an overview of the study of the biological membrane at the molecular level. Part II focuses on the detailed description of the overall molecular organization of membranes. The third part covers the relationship of the molecular organization of membranes to specific membrane functions; discusses catalytic membrane proteins; presents the role of membranes in important cellular functions; and looks at the membrane systems in eukaryotic cells. Biochemists, cell physiologists, biologists, researchers, and graduate and postdoctoral students in the field of biology will find the text a good reference material.

This text attempts to introduce the molecular biology of cell membranes to students and professionals of diverse backgrounds. Although several membrane biology books are available, they do not integrate recent knowledge gained using modern molecular tools with more traditional membrane topics. Molecular techniques, such as cDNA cloning and x-ray diffraction, have provided fresh insights into cell membrane structure and function. The great excitement today, which I attempt to convey in this book, is that molecular details are beginning to merge with physiological responses. In other words, we are beginning to understand precisely how membranes work. This textbook is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate students. Readers should have previous or concurrent coursework in biochemistry; prior studies in elementary physiology would be helpful. I have found that the presentation of topics in this book is appropriate for students of biology, biochemistry, biophysics and physiology, chemistry, and medicine. This book will be useful in courses focusing on membranes and as a supplementary text in biochemistry courses. Professionals will also find this to be a useful resource book for their personal libraries.

The interface between a living cell and the surrounding world plays a critical role in numerous complex biological processes. Sperm/egg fusion, virus/cell fusion, exocytosis, endocytosis, and ion permeation are a few examples of processes involving membranes. In recent years, powerful tools such as X-ray crystal lography, electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and infra-red and Raman spectroscopy have been developed to characterize the structure and dy namics of biomembranes. Despite this progress, many of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes are still not well understood. The membrane is a very complicated supramolecular liquid-crystalline structure that is largely composed of lipids, forming a bilayer, to which proteins and other biomolecules are anchored. Often, the lipid bilayer environment is pictured as a hydropho bic structureless slab providing a thermodynamic driving force to partition the amino acids of a membrane protein according to their solubility. However, much of the molecular complexity of the phospholipid bilayer environment is ignored in such a simplified view. It is likely that the atomic details of the polar head group region and the transition from the bulk water to the hydrophobic core of the membrane are important. An understanding of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes thus requires a better characterization at the molec ular level of how proteins interact with lipid molecules, of how lipids affect protein structure and of how lipid molecules might regulate protein function.

This textbook provides a strong foundation and a clear overview for students of membrane biology and an invaluable synthesis of cutting-edge research for working scientists. The text retains its clear and engaging style, providing a solid background in membrane biochemistry, while also incorporating the approaches of biophysics, genetics and cell biology to investigations of membrane structure, function and biogenesis to provide a unique overview of this fast-moving field. A wealth of new high resolution structures of membrane proteins are presented, including the Na/K pump and a receptor-G protein complex, offering exciting insights into how they function. All key tools of current membrane research are described, including detergents and model systems, bioinformatics, protein-folding methodology, crystallography and diffraction, and molecular modeling. This comprehensive and up-to-date text, emphasising the correlations between membrane research and human health, provides a solid foundation for all those working in this field.