Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, Volume 9 is a collection of manuscripts presented at the Second International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, held in Wenner-Gren Center, Stockholm, Sweden on June 1966. The conference is sponsored by International Union of Biochemistry Swedish Medical Research Council Swedish Natural Science Research Council Wenner-Gren Center Foundation for Scientific Research. This book contains 51 chapters, and begins with reviews of NMR investigations of biological macromolecules, including proteins, amino acids, and glycylglycine copper (II). Considerable chapters are devoted to numerous biological studies using the electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR), thus introducing the branch of science called submolecular biology. This book also explores other applications of NMR and EPR, with special emphasis on blood component analysis and protein-metal complexes. The final chapters survey the principles and applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy. This book will prove useful to analytical chemists and biologists.

During teaching NMR to students and researchers, we felt the need for a text-book which can cover modern trends in the application of NMR to biological systems. This book covers the entire area of NMR in Biological Sciences (Biomolecules, cells and tissues, animals, plants and drug design). As well as being useful to researchers, this is an excellent book for teaching a course on NMR in Biological Systems.

We are pleased to present this second volume of a series that has already received much interest. The application of magnetic resonance methods to the study of actual biological systems as contrasted to cell-free samples, although not entirely novel, as demonstrated by Civan and Shporer in Volume I, has taken on new dimensions with the use of phosphorus-31 and carbon-13 NMR in studying cells, tissues, and organelles. The applications of 31 P NMR to such systems is reviewed in this volume, while carbon-13 will be covered in a later one. The use of nitroxide spin labels has grown to the point where it now may be considered a common biological technique. The synthesis and applications of a new class of nitroxides is described in this volume. ESR spectroscopy of paramagnetic ions is a powerful approach to studying molecular and structural details, as the chapter by Boas, Pilbrow, and Smith on the ESR of copper in Volume 1 has shown. In this volume the ESR of molybdenum and iron is treated in a comparable fashion. In the first volume some aspects of 1 H NMR spectroscopy of certain classes of In this volume the high-resolu biological macromolecules were discussed.· tion multinuclear NMR spectra of peptides, including the physiologically significant peptide hormones, are reviewed.

The foundation for understanding the function and dynamics of biological systems is not only knowledge of their structure, but the new methodologies and applications used to determine that structure. This volume in Biological Magnetic Resonance emphasizes the methods that involve Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging. It will interest researchers working in the field of imaging.

In the four decades since its discovery nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become an indispensable tool for obtaining chemical information often. inaccessible by other methods. With the development of instruments of increasingly higher magnetic field strengths, the integration of powerful computers and the availability of an expanding array of flexible software new applications and developments have proliferated rapidly. Among the more exciting new advances is the use of NMR spectroscopy to probe biological systems. The last ten years have witnessed tremendous progress in the development of new NMR imaging and spectroscopic techniques for research and diagnostic applications. The ability to investigate metabolic processes and anatomical structure of intact biological systems under conditions that are totally non-destructive and non-invasive clearly provides much of the impetus for the intense activity that has been generated in the fields of medicine, radiology and the allied basic sciences. Significant advances have been made in this brief period: Whole-body proton NMR imaging today provides anatomical definition of normal and abnormal tissue with a contrast and detection sensitivity often superior to those of X-ray computed tomography and other competing imaging methods. Biochemical pathways, using NMR spectroscopy of protons, carbon-13 and phosphorus-31 nuclei in live animals and man can readily be followed by surface-coil methods to detect metabolites in localized regions. Indicative of the importance and widespread acceptance of these techniques is the explosive growth that the NMR literature is experiencing. This augers well for the future.

We are pleased to present Volume 9 of our highly successful series, which now celebrates 12 years of providing the magnetic resonance community with topical, authoritative chapters on new aspects of biological magnetic resonance. As always, we try to present a diversity of topic coverage in each volume, ranging from applications of in vivo magnetic resonance to more fundamental aspects of electron spin resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance. Philip Yeagle presents an eagerly awaited chapter on 31p NMR studies of membranes and membrane protein interactions. Alan Marshall has con tributed two chapters to the volume: one, with Jiejun Wu, describes magnetic resonance studies of 5S-RNA as probes of its structure and conformation; the secon