Protein Physics: A Course of Lectures covers the most general problems of protein structure, folding and function. It describes key experimental facts and introduces concepts and theories, dealing with fibrous, membrane, and water-soluble globular proteins, in both their native and denatured states. The book systematically summarizes and presents the results of several decades of worldwide fundamental research on protein physics, structure, and folding, describing many physical models that help readers make estimates and predictions of physical processes that occur in proteins. New to this revised edition is the inclusion of novel information on amyloid aggregation, natively disordered proteins, protein folding in vivo, protein motors, misfolding, chameleon proteins, advances in protein engineering & design, and advances in the modeling of protein folding. Further, the book provides problems with solutions, many new and updated references, and physical and mathematical appendices. In addition, new figures (including stereo drawings, with a special appendix showing how to use them) are added, making this an ideal resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and researchers in academia in the fields of biophysics, physics, biochemistry, biologists, biotechnology, and chemistry. - Fully revised and expanded new edition based on the latest research developments in protein physics - Written by the world's top expert in the field - Deals with fibrous, membrane, and water-soluble globular proteins, in both their native and denatured states - Summarizes, in a systematic form, the results of several decades of worldwide fundamental research on protein physics and their structure and folding - Examines experimental data on protein structure in the post-genome era

"Covers the most general problems of protein structure, folding and function and introduces the concepts and theories. It deals with fibrous, membrane and especially water-soluble globular proteins, in both their native and denatured states. The book summarizes and presents in a systematic way the results of several decades of worldwide fundamental research on protein physics, structure and folding"--Back cover.

This book introduces an approach to protein folding from the point of view of kinetic theory. There is an abundance of data on protein folding, but few proposals are available on the mechanism driving the process. Here, presented for the first time, are suggestions on possible research directions, as developed by the author in collaboration with C C Lin.The first half of this invaluable book contains a concise but relatively complete review of relevant topics in statistical mechanics and kinetic theory. It includes standard topics such as thermodynamics, the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, and ensemble theory. Special discussions include the dynamics of phase transitions, and Brownian motion as an illustration of stochastic processes.The second half develops topics in molecular biology and protein structure, with a view to discovering mechanisms underlying protein folding. Attention is focused on the energy flow through the protein in its folded state. A mathematical model, based on the Brownian motion of coupled harmonic oscillators, is worked out in the appendix.

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

The Physics of Protein Structure and Dynamics looks at various aspects of protein structure and dynamics from a physico-chemical point of view. It goes into some depth regarding the description of non-covalent forces that determine the relative stability of folded and unfolded proteins. Anharmonic protein dynamics involving motions between different minima of a rugged Gibbs energy landscape is described in great detail. The book combines various aspects of the protein folding/unfolding processes with an overview of intrinsically disordered proteins, which have attracted considerable interest of the protein community over the last 25 years but are thus far underrepresented in classroom-oriented textbooks. The book looks at protein folding and intrinsically disordered proteins as heavily interrelated topics that need to be viewed together. Furthermore, it presents some basic physico-chemical aspects of protein/peptide self-assembly into nanoscale fibrils. Intrinsically disordered peptides and proteins play a major role particularly in aggregation and self-assembly processes that lead to various diseases (Alzheimer, Parkinson, Huntington, Mad-Cow). Therefore, the relevance of protein disorder for protein self-assembly deserves a closer look. Protein self-assembly cannot be separated from protein folding since it is frequently the product of misfolding. With regard to modern theories, the folding processes are linked to insights on protein dynamics and the discovered relationship between proteins and spin glasses. - The readers will benefit from being provided with an in-depth overview of the physical concepts that govern different aspects of protein folding, disorder and self-assembly. By emphasizing the relationship between these issues, the approach adds a holistic character to the book - The book is to a major extent mathematically based. Mathematics is part of the language of physicists and physical chemists which cannot be properly substituted by words - For instructors, the book will offer a unique source for her/his teaching of current protein physics issues - The way how the book will be constructed (multiple references to primary literature with DOI links, literature-based problem sets and topics for discussion) will facilitate a learning process suitable for research-oriented students - Problem solving frequently requires the writing of short computer programs, something that is underemphasized in chemistry and biochemistry education (with the exception of computationally trained students, of course)

Protein Actions: Principles and Modeling is aimed at graduates, advanced undergraduates, and any professional who seeks an introduction to the biological, chemical, and physical properties of proteins. Broadly accessible to biophysicists and biochemists, it will be particularly useful to student and professional structural biologists and molecular biophysicists, bioinformaticians and computational biologists, biological chemists (particularly drug designers) and molecular bioengineers. The book begins by introducing the basic principles of protein structure and function. Some readers will be familiar with aspects of this, but the authors build up a more quantitative approach than their competitors. Emphasizing concepts and theory rather than experimental techniques, the book shows how proteins can be analyzed using the disciplines of elementary statistical mechanics, energetics, and kinetics. These chapters illuminate how proteins attain biologically active states and the properties of those states. The book ends with a synopsis the roles of computational biology and bioinformatics in protein science.

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.

Protein-protein associations are fundamental to biological mechanisms. This book, created from lecture notes and classroom sessions, covers the general principles of protein-protein association. It should be of considerable value to cell biologists with a limited understanding of proteins, as well as to biochemists with a deeper background in protein structure. Developed from lectures given to beginning graduate students in cell and molecular biology, Principles of Protein-Protein Association presents general principles of thermodynamics and kinetics, and structural principles of protein-protein interface. An important feature is guided reading of informative classic papers. Faculties organizing similar classes, and students and researchers wishing to learn on their own, will also find this book of use. Book jacket.

A physicist's guide to the phenomena of life Interactions between the fields of physics and biology reach back over a century, and some of the most significant developments in biology—from the discovery of DNA's structure to imaging of the human brain—have involved collaboration across this disciplinary boundary. For a new generation of physicists, the phenomena of life pose exciting challenges to physics itself, and biophysics has emerged as an important subfield of this discipline. Here, William Bialek provides the first graduate-level introduction to biophysics aimed at physics students. Bialek begins by exploring how photon counting in vision offers important lessons about the opportunities for quantitative, physics-style experiments on diverse biological phenomena. He draws from these lessons three general physical principles—the importance of noise, the need to understand the extraordinary performance of living systems without appealing to finely tuned parameters, and the critical role of the representation and flow of information in the business of life. Bialek then applies these principles to a broad range of phenomena, including the control of gene expression, perception and memory, protein folding, the mechanics of the inner ear, the dynamics of biochemical reactions, and pattern formation in developing embryos. Featuring numerous problems and exercises throughout, Biophysics emphasizes the unifying power of abstract physical principles to motivate new and novel experiments on biological systems. Covers a range of biological phenomena from the physicist's perspective Features 200 problems Draws on statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and related mathematical concepts Includes an annotated bibliography and detailed appendixes

Depite the rapid expansion of the field of biophysics, there are very few books that comprehensively treat specific topics in this area. Recently, the field of single molecule biophysics has developed very quickly, and a few books specifically treating single molecule methods are beginning to appear. However, the promise of single molecule biophysics is to contribute to the understanding of specific fields of biology using new methods. This book would focus on the specific topic of the biophysics of DNA-protein interactions, and would include the use of new approaches, including both bulk methods as well as single molecule methods. This would make the book attractive to anyone working in the general area of DNA-protein interactions, which is of course a much wider market than just single molecule biophysicists or even biophysicists. The subject of the book will be the biophysics of DNA-protein interactions, and will include new methods and results that describe the physical mechanism by which proteins interact with DNA. For example, there has been much recent work on the mechanism by which proteins search for specific binding sites on DNA. A few chapters will be devoted to experiments and theory that shed light on this important problem. We will also cover proteins that alter DNA properties to facilitate interactions important for transcription or replication. Another section of the book will cover the biophysical mechanism by which motor proteins interact with DNA. Finally, we will cover larger protein-DNA complexes, such as replication forks, recombination complexes, DNA repair interactions, and their chromatin context.