This book focuses primarily on the role of interfacial forces in understanding biological phenomena at the molecular scale. By providing a suitable statistical mechanical apparatus to handle the biomolecular interface, the book becomes uniquely positioned to address core problems in molecular biophysics. It highlights the importance of interfacial tension in delineating a solution to the protein folding problem, in unravelling the physico-chemical basis of enzyme catalysis and protein associations, and in rationally designing molecular targeted therapies. Thus grounded in fundamental science, the book develops a powerful technological platform for drug discovery, while it is set to inspire scientists at any level in their careers determined to address the major challenges in molecular biophysics. The acknowledgment of how exquisitely the structure and dynamics of proteins and their aqueous environment are related attests to the overdue recognition that biomolecular phenomena cannot be effectively understood without dealing with interfacial behaviour. There is an urge to grasp how biologically relevant behaviour is shaped by the structuring of biomolecular interfaces and how interfacial tension affects the molecular events that take place in the cell. This book squarely addresses these needs from a physicist perspective. The book may serve as a monograph for practitioners and, alternatively, as an advanced textbook. Fruitful reading requires a background in physical chemistry and some basics in biophysics. The selected problems at the end of the chapters and the progression in conceptual difficulty make it a suitable textbook for a graduate level course or an elective course for seniors majoring in chemistry, physics, biomedical engineering or related disciplines.

The book focuses on the aqueous interface of biomolecules, a vital yet overlooked area of biophysical research. Most biological phenomena cannot be fully understood at the molecular level without considering interfacial behavior. The author presents conceptual advances in molecular biophysics that herald the advent of a new discipline, epistructural biology, centered on the interactions of water and bio molecular structures across the interface. The author introduces powerful theoretical and computational resources in order to address fundamental topics such as protein folding, the physico-chemical basis of enzyme catalysis and protein associations. On the basis of this information, a multi-disciplinary approach is used to engineer therapeutic drugs and to allow substantive advances in targeted molecular medicine. This book will be of interest to scientists, students and practitioners in the fields of chemistry, biophysics and biomedical engineering.

Provides an introduction to the structure and function of biomolecules --- especially proteins --- and the physical tools used to investigate them The discussion concentrates on physical tools and properties, emphasizing techniques that are contributing to new developments and avoiding those that are already well established and whose results have already been exploited fully New tools appear regularly - synchrotron radiation, proton radiology, holography, optical tweezers, and muon radiography, for example, have all been used to open new areas of understanding

Do you often lose your keys? You will find in this book the best strategy to find them, or at least the one deduced from statistical physics. What is the link with biology? Some proteins use the same strategy to find their target inside a living cell. This example illustrates one of the many links between physics and biology. These links result from an intense research activity in the past years at the interface between those two disciplines. This book describes some of the most recent progresses at this interface: from instrumental progresses used in biology to the mechanical description of a cell, to molecular motors, from brain activity mechanisms to auditory or sensory perception. Many fields are covered from the molecular to the scale at the organ level. A few biological notions are presented in the first chapter that may help to access the biological aspects of the others. In the end this book may interest people passionate in science, from the simple amateur to the advanced researcher level.

This comprehensive work discusses novel biomolecular surfaces that have been engineered to either control or measure cell function at the atomic, molecular, and cellular levels. Each chapter presents real results, concepts, and expert perspectives of how cells interact with biomolecular surfaces, with particular emphasis on interactions within complex mechanical environments such as in the cardiovascular system. In addition, the book provides detailed coverage of inflammation and cellular immune response as a useful model for how engineering concepts and tools may be effectively applied to complex systems in biomedicine.-Accessible to biologists looking for new ways to model their results and engineers interested in biomedical applications -Useful to researchers in biomaterials, inflammation, and vascular biology -Excellent resource for graduate students as a textbook in cell & tissue engineering or cell mechanics courses

Provides an introduction to the structure and function of biomolecules --- especially proteins --- and the physical tools used to investigate them The discussion concentrates on physical tools and properties, emphasizing techniques that are contributing to new developments and avoiding those that are already well established and whose results have already been exploited fully New tools appear regularly - synchrotron radiation, proton radiology, holography, optical tweezers, and muon radiography, for example, have all been used to open new areas of understanding

During development cells and tissues undergo changes in pattern and form that employ a wider range of physical mechanisms than at any other time in an organism's life. This book demonstrates how physics can be used to analyze these biological phenomena. Written to be accessible to both biologists and physicists, major stages and components of the biological development process are introduced and then analyzed from the viewpoint of physics. The presentation of physical models requires no mathematics beyond basic calculus.

Aimed at those working to enter this rapidly developing field, this volume on biological physics is written in a pedagogical style by leading scientists giving explanations that take their starting point where any physicist can follow and end at the frontier of research in biological physics. These lectures describe the state-of-the-art physics of biomolecules and cells. In biological systems ranging from single biomolecules to entire cells and larger biological systems, it focuses on aspects that require concepts and methods from physics for their analysis and understanding, such as the mechanics of motor proteins; how the genetic code is physically read and managed; the machinery of protein--DNA interactions; force spectroscopy of biomolecules' velopes, cytoskeletons, and cytoplasms; polymerization forces; listeria propulsion; cell motility; lab-on-a-chip nanotechnology for single-molecule analysis of biomolecules; bioinformatics; and coding and computational strategies of the brain.

Biophysics is a new way of looking at living matter. It uses quantitative experimental and theoretical methods to open a new window for studying and understanding life processes. This textbook gives compact introductions to the basics of the field, including molecular cell biology and statistical physics. It then presents in-depth discussions of more advanced biophysics subjects, progressing to state-of-the-art experiments and their theoretical interpretations. The book is unique by offering a general introduction to biophysics, yet at the same time restricting itself to processes that occur inside the cell nucleus and that involve biopolymers (DNA, RNA, and proteins). This allows for an accessible read for beginners and a springboard for specialists who wish to continue their study in more detail.