Biomolecular Structure and Function covers the proceedings of the 1977 ?Cellular Function and Molecular Structure: Biophysical Approaches to Biological Problems? symposium. It summarizes the application of several biophysical techniques to molecular research in biology. This book starts by describing the use of deuterium-labeled lipids, as monitors of the degree of organization of membrane lipids. It also describes the use of carbon-13-labeled lipids, as indicators of molecular mobility. It explains the lipid-protein interactions involving two integral membrane proteins, mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase and calcium-dependent ATPase of muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum. The book goes on to present NMR studies on the organization and conformation of phospholipids, chloroplast membranes, and erythrocyte membranes. It also presents the ESR study of spectrin-phospholipid associations. It discusses the use of fluorescence probes, electrokinetics, neutron diffraction and ion theory studies of phospholipid-protein association, hormone disease, and senescence effects on prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Moreover, this book presents the experiments and phosphorus-31 NMR methodology to simultaneously monitor the intracellular pH and phosphate metabolism in a beating heart, functioning kidney, or an intact living microorganism. This book then describes physical probing of intracellular fluidity and structural changes attending tissue or cell cycles. It also relates relatively narrow lines in the hydrogen-1 NMR spectrum of the extremely viscous complex of the muscle protein troponin and highly polymerized tropomyosin. Structure-function studies of fibrous proteins, such as collagen, actin, and myosin, and active site analysis of enzymes are also presented. Finally, a wide variety of methodologies and technologies is exemplified. This includes proton, carbon, fluorine, phosphorus, and lithium NMR spectroscopy; spin labeling and EPR spectroscopy; chemical studies; light scattering and fluorescence; and electron microscopy.

Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics describes recent fundamental advances in the experimental and theoretical study of molecular dynamics and stochastic dynamic simulations, X-ray crystallography and NMR of biomolecules, the structure of proteins and its prediction, time resolved Fourier transform IR spectroscopy of biomolecules, the computation of free energy, applications of vibrational CD of nucleic acids, and solid state NMR. Further presentations include recent advances in UV resonance Raman spectroscopy of biomolecules, semiempirical MO methods, empirical force fields, quantitative studies of the structure of proteins in water by Fourier transform IR, and density functional theory. Metal-ligand interactions, DFT treatment of organometallic and biological systems, and simulation vs. X-ray and far IR experiments are also discussed in some detail. The book provides a broad perspective of the current theoretical aspects and recent experimental findings in the field of biomolecular dynamics, revealing future research trends, especially in areas where theoreticians and experimentalists could fruitfully collaborate.

Fundamentals of Molecular Structural Biology reviews the mathematical and physical foundations of molecular structural biology. Based on these fundamental concepts, it then describes molecular structure and explains basic genetic mechanisms. Given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research, early career researchers and those shifting into an adjacent field often require a "fundamentals" book to get them up-to-speed on the foundations of a particular field. This book fills that niche. Provides a current and easily digestible resource on molecular structural biology, discussing both foundations and the latest advances Addresses critical issues surrounding macromolecular structures, such as structure-based drug discovery, single-particle analysis, computational molecular biology/molecular dynamic simulation, cell signaling and immune response, macromolecular assemblies, and systems biology Presents discussions that ultimately lead the reader toward a more detailed understanding of the basis and origin of disease

Computational techniques have become an indispensable part of Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Design. In conjunction with refined experimental methods and powerful hardware, they enable us to analyze and visualize biomolecular structures, simulate their motions and to a variable degree understand their physicochemical properties and function. In addition, they provide essentially the only way to analyze and correlate the astronomical amounts of experimental sequence and structural data accumulating in international databases. We have good reasons to believe that further advances in this area will eventually enable us to predict with sufficient accuracy many structural and functional properties of fairly large biomolecules, given their sequence and specified environmental conditions. However, it is also important to realize that in achieving this goal, we encounter several serious problems of conceptual and methodological nature, the solution of which requires new approaches and algorithms. For example, we need better force fields, more efficient optimization routines, an adequate description of electrostatics and hydration, reliable methods to compute free energies, and ways to extent the length of molecular dynamics simulations by several orders of magnitude.