Practical Protein Chemistry

Protein chemistry is a wide field embracing the analysis, synthesis, sequencing and separation of peptides, proteins and individual amino acids. Practical protein chemistry is a survey of proven techniques designed primarily to be a laboratory handbook for research workers involved with proteins.

In recent years, interest in proteins has surged. This resurgence has been driven by the expansion of the post-genomic era when structural genomics and proteomics require new techniques in protein chemistry and new applications of older techniques. Protein chemistry methods are used by nearly every discipline of biomedical research. Many techniques

Techniques in Protein Chemistry is based on the papers presented on the second annual meeting of the Protein Society in August 1988. The compendium contains the significant technical advances in protein chemistry. The book highlights topics that are of general interest and practical value to protein chemists. Emphasis is given to methods and applications in protein sequencing; applications of mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance technology; limitations of amino acid microanalysis; and high-performance liquid chromatography. The book will be a good reference for chemists and researchers in the field of protein chemistry.

New textbooks at alllevels of chemistry appear with great regularity. Some fields like basic biochemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and chemical thermodynamics are weil represented by many excellent texts, and new or revised editions are published sufficiently often to keep up with progress in research. However, some areas of chemistry, especially many of those taught at the graduate level, suffer from a reallack ofup-to-date textbooks. The most serious needs occur in fields that are rapidly changing. Textbooks in these subjects usually have to be written by scientists actually involved in the research which is advancing the field. lt is not often easy to persuade such individuals to settime aside to help spread the knowledge they have accumu lated. Our goal, in this series, is to pinpoint areas of chemistry where recent progress has outpaced what is covered in any available textbooks, and then seek out and persuade experts in these fields to produce relatively concise but instructive introductions to their fields. These should serve the needs of one semester or one quarter graduate courses in chemistry and biochemistry. In some cases the availability of texts in active research areas should help stimulate the creation of new courses. NewYork CHARLES R. CANTOR Preface to the Second Edition The original plan for the first edition of this book was to title it Enzyme Purification: Princip/es and Practice.

In the last fifteen years there has been a revolution in the techniques available for the analysis and isolation of proteins. Every time a new technique has been introduced, numerous papers have appeared describing modifications to it and the research worker who wishes to employ these methods is faced with a very serious problem in deciding which particular variant to use. These volumes are intended to provide the fullest practical detail so that any scientist can follow the procedure by using this book alone and without having recourse to the original literature. The techniques which are described in full are ones in which all the authors have had first-hand experience, and the descriptions contain those small but important points which save so much time. In the first volume, separation and isolation procedures are discussed; the second concerns its analysis and reactivity, and the third volume with the measurement of the macromolecular properties of proteins.