الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Zinc Finger Proteins: From Atomic Contact to Cellular Function
The scientists discovered a novel domain associated with zinc, and named this domain "zinc finger. " The number of proteins with similar zinc fingers grew quickly and these proteins are now called C2H2, Cys2His2 or classical zinc finger proteins. To date, about 24,000 C2H2 zinc finger proteins have been recognized. Approximately 700 human genes, or more than 2% of the genome, have been estimated to encode C2H2 finger proteins. From the beginning these proteins were thought to be numerous, but no one could have predicted such a huge number. Perhaps thousands of scientists are now working on C2H2 zinc finger proteins fi-om variou s viewpoints. This field is a good example of how a new science begins with the insight of a few scientists and how it develops by efforts of numerous independent scientists, in contrast to a policy-driven scientific project, such as the Human Genome Project, with goals clearly set at its inception and with work performed by a huge collaboration throughout the world. As more zinc finger proteins were discovered, several subfamilies, such as C2C2, CCHC, CCCH, LIM, RING, TAZ, and FYVE emerged, increasing our understanding of zinc fingers. The knowledge was overwhelming. Moreover, scientists began defining the term "zinc finger" differently and using various names for identical zinc fingers.
What Sustains Life? : Consilient Mechanisms for Protein-Based Machines and Materials
What Sustains Life? How can something so seemingly improbable and fragile as life exist in such hardy and resilient forms? The question has inspired intrigue among curious humans, from physicists to theologians, for centuries. Fascinated by this question, Dr Dan W. Urry, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota, St Paul, begins his investigation into the sustenance of life through an examination of the fundamental design of elastic-contractile model proteins.
Weak Links : The Universal Key to the Stability of Networks and Complex Systems
How can our societies be stabilized in a crisis? Why can we enjoy and understand Shakespeare? Why are fruitflies uniform? How do omnivorous eating habits aid our survival? What makes the Mona Lisa’s smile beautiful? How do women keep our social structures intact? – Could there possibly be a single answer to all these questions? This book shows that the statement: "weak links stabilize complex systems" provides the key to understanding each of these intriguing puzzles, and many others too. The author (recipient of several distinguished science communication prizes) uses weak (low affinity, low probability) interactions as a thread to introduce a vast variety of networks from proteins to economics and ecosystems.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin, any of several organic substances that are necessary in small quantities for normal health and growth in higher forms of animal life. Vitamins are distinct in several ways from other biologically important compounds such as proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Although these latter substances also are indispensable for proper bodily functions, almost all of them can be synthesized by animals in adequate quantities. Vitamins, on the other hand, generally cannot be synthesized in sufficient amounts to meet bodily needs and therefore must be obtained from the diet or from some synthetic source. For this reason, vitamins are called essential nutrients. Vitamins also differ from the other biological compounds in that relatively small quantities are needed to complete their functions. In general, these functions are of a catalytic or regulatory nature, facilitating or controlling vital chemical reactions in the body’s cells.
Viral Membrane Proteins: Structure, Function, and Drug Design
Protein Reviews, a new book series from Springer, covers all aspects of protein investigations including protein chemistry, sequence, 3-D structure, biological activity, proteomics, methodology, and many more new and emerging topics. This book can help teach everyone that it is possible to treat viral disease with drugs that bind to membrane proteins. Knowing that, we can hope that more resources will be focused on finding other such drugs to the remaining scourges of mankind, at least those we do not produce ourselves."
Vascular hyperpermeability : Methods and protocols
Cover topics such as determination of solute permeability of microvascular endothelial cell monolayers in vitro; evaluation of barrier integrity used in a two-layered microfluidic device mimicking the blood-brain barrier; isolation and culture of human umbilical vein endothelial cells; measurement of blood-brain barrier hyperpermeability using Evans Blue extravasation assay; lymphatic vascular permeability determined from direct measurements of solute flux; intravital imaging of leukocyte-endothelial interaction by intravital multiphoton microscopy; and evaluation of tight junction integrity in brain endothelial cells using confocal microscopy.
Understanding Biology Using Peptides ; Proceedings of the Nineteenth American Peptide Symposium
Understanding Biology Using Peptides: Proceedings of the 19th American Peptide Symposium highlights many of the recent developments in peptide science, with a particular emphasis on how these advances are being applied to basic problems in biology and medicine. Specific topics covered include novel synthetic strategies, peptides in biological signaling, post-translational modifications of peptides and proteins, peptide quaternary structure in material science and disease, and peptides as tools in drug discovery.
Tropomyosin
Whereas the biochemistry of the 1980s revealed the potential of tropomyosin isoforms to diversify the function of actin filaments, the subsequent disenchantment with isoform biology in general in the 1990s inhibited growth of this field
Transmembrane β-barrel proteins : Methods and protocols
Explores experimental strategies and protocols for the expression, assembly, characterization, and exploitation of transmembrane β-barrel proteins. Beginning with methodologies to study their assembly, the book continues with protocols for characterizing the landscape of transmembrane β-barrel protein interactions with other cellular factors, dissecting processes of protein transport in bacteria and mitochondria, examining structural characterization, determination, and prediction, and more. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step and readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Transactions on computational systems biology V
This issue of Transactions on Computational Systems Biologycontains a selec-tion of papers presented initially at the 2005 IEEE International Conference onGranular Computing held in Beijing, July 25–27, and a few invited papers. Pa-pers included in this special issue are devoted to various aspects of computationalmethods, algorithms, and techniques in bioinformatics such as gene expressionanalysis, biomedical literature mining and natural language processing, proteinstructure prediction, biological databasemanagement and biomedical informa-tion retrieval.
Traité de nutrition artificielle de ladulte = Adult artificial nutrition treatise
Takes into account the recent expansion of knowledge of the relationship between nutrition and prognosis in many areas of pathology. It will provide the most demanding specialist with the synthesis of current knowledge in fields which have been profoundly changed and enriched in recent years, in particular in the field of the management of malnutrition in hospitals. Working and reference tool, teaching and training tool, this book will provide essential help to all those who are concerned with clinical nutrition and metabolism: doctors (anesthetists-resuscitators, nutritionists, gastroenterologists, nephrologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, oncologists, geriatricians, neurologists, surgeons, internists), pharmacists, biologists and dieticians.
Total Chemical Synthesis of Proteins
This important reference explores the three main chemoselective ligation methods for assembling unprotected peptide segments, including native chemical ligation (NCL). It includes information on synthetic strategies for the complex polypeptides that constitute glycoproteins, sulfoproteins, and membrane proteins, as well as their characterization. In addition, important areas of application for total protein synthesis are detailed, such as protein crystallography, protein engineering, and biomedical research.
Topology in Molecular Biology
The book presents a class of new results in molecular biology for which topological methods and ideas are important. The text also provides a short course of modern topology intended for the broad audience of biologists and physicists.
Toll-like Receptors in Inflammation
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical mediators of the innate immune response in mammals. This family of receptors recognizes a variety of microbial products or motifs and initiates the host response to infection. Examples include TLR4 which recognizes lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria, TLR3 which recognizes viral double-stranded RNA, and TLR9 which recognizes CpG DNA motifs, found in both viruses and bacteria. All TLRs possess an intracellular region termed the Toll-IL-1 receptor-Resistance (TIR) domain which is essential for signaling from these receptors. The specificity of signaling from individual TLRs arises from differential utilization of adapter proteins. This specificity results in a tailoring of the host defense response depending on the microbe being sensed. TLRs are increasingly being implicated in both infectious and inflammatory diseases, notable examples being sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease, atherosclerosis, and asthma. There is, therefore, great interest in targeting TLRs therapeutically since a disruption of TLR function will result in a decrease in the production of inflammatory mediators.
Tight Junctions
ight junctions (TJs) are cell-ceil adhesion belts that encircle epithelial and endothelial cells at the limit between the apical and the lateral Tmembrane. These junctions are crucial for the establishment of separate compartments in multicellular organisms and for the exchange of substances between the internal milieu and the external environment. The perception of TJs has changed over the years. From being regarded as static paracellular seals, they have come to be perceived as dynamic structures that adjust their morphol ogy and function in response to physiological, pharmacological and pathologi cal challenges.
Therapeutic proteins : Methods and protocols
Covers the latest key aspects of therapeutic protein applications. Chapters in this book cover topics such as the discovery, production, and conjugation of protein-proteins with discussions on the direction of future development and advancements; ways to use these engineering proteins for therapeutic and vaccine applications; and the use of modified protein nanocarriers.
Therapeutic Lipidology ; 1st ed.
This volume will provide practicing clinicians with a focused and intensive but useable source of information on the identification and management of dyslipidemias. Among the topics discussed in this groundbreaking text are lipoprotein metabolism, pharmacological therapy for cardiovascular disease, thiazolidinediones on serum lipoproteins, hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia and obesity, dyslipidemia in children, and much more.
Therapeutic Lipidology ; 2nd ed.
The chapters focus on recent advances in the field including novel biomarkers and the microbiome, genomics of cardiovascular risks, PCSK9 inhibitors, imaging technologies, and epidemiology of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The book describes new guidelines, novel therapeutic agents, and changes in the understanding of specific lipoproteins and subclasses with regard to their relationships to cardiovascular disease risk. The second edition contains more than thirty chapters covering such topics as the history of lipidology, lipoprotein metabolism and vascular biology, disorders of lipid metabolism, lifestyle/dietary and pharmacologic management for dyslipidemia, the management of dyslipidemia in certain subgroups (e.g., women, children, older patients) and lipid testing, as well as an examination of other biomarkers and testing procedures related to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
Theory and Mathematical Methods for Bioformatics
This monograph addresses, in a systematic and pedagogical manner, the mathematical methods and the algorithms required to deal with the molecularly based problems of bioinformatics. The book will be useful to students, research scientists and practitioners of bioinformatics and related fields, especially those who are interested in the underlying mathematical methods and theory. Among the methods presented in the book, prominent attention is given to pair-wise and multiple sequence alignment algorithms, stochastic models of mutations, modulus structure theory and protein configuration analysis. Strong links to the molecular structures of proteins, DNA and other biomolecules and their analyses are developed. In particular, for proteins an in-depth exposition of secondary structure prediction methods should be a valuable tool in both molecular biology and in applications to rational drug design. The book can also be used as a textbook and for this reason most of the chapters include exercises and problems at the level of a graduate program in bioinformatics.
The Thermodynamic Machinery of Life
Living organisms are open thermodynamic systems whose functional structure has developed and been kinetically frozen during the historical process of biological evolution. A thermodynamics of both nonequilibrium and complex systems is needed for their description. In this book, the foundations of such a thermodynamics are presented. Biological processes at the cellular level are considered as coupled chemical reactions and transport processes across internal and the cytoplasmic membrane. All these processes are catalyzed by specific enzymes hence the kinetics of enzymatic catalysis and its control are described here in detail. The coupling of several processes through a common enzyme is considered in the context of free energy or signal transduction. Special attention is paid to evidence for a rich stochastic internal dynamics of native proteins and its possible role in the control of enzyme activity and in the action of biological molecular machines.
