The Novartis Foundation Series is a popular collection of the proceedings from Novartis Foundation Symposia, in which groups of leading scientists from a range of topics across biology, chemistry and medicine assembled to present papers and discuss results. The Novartis Foundation, originally known as the Ciba Foundation, is well known to scientists and clinicians around the world.

Advances in Enzymology and Related Areas of Molecular Biology is a seminal series in the field of biochemistry, offering researchers access to authoritative reviews of the latest discoveries in all areas of enzymology and molecular biology. These landmark volumes date back to 1941, providing an unrivaled view of the historical development of enzymology. The series offers researchers the latest understanding of enzymes, their mechanisms, reactions and evolution, roles in complex biological process, and their application in both the laboratory and industry. Each volume in the series features contributions by leading pioneers and investigators in the field from around the world. All articles are carefully edited to ensure thoroughness, quality, and readability. With its wide range of topics and long historical pedigree, Advances in Enzymology and Related Areas of Molecular Biology can be used not only by students and researchers in molecular biology, biochemistry, and enzymology, but also by any scientist interested in the discovery of an enzyme, its properties, and its applications.

This book is an account of the centuries of experiment and speculation that have led to our understanding of how muscles work.

Much of the information currently available on the transport systems of bacterial and animal cell membranes and their mode of coupling to metabolic supply of energy can be found in this volume. Consideration of the participating enzymes dictated the choice of topics: Several transport systems where little information is available on the enzymology of the process are not included, while separate chapters deal with y-glutamyl transpeptidase and intestinal disaccharidases which meet many of the requirements of transport enzymes. The volume also includes two chapters on photosynthetic membranes as a general introduction to the topic. Other aspects of biological transport and photosynthesis will be developed in detail in a forthcoming volume now in preparation. These chapters reveal the excitement and rapid advance of the field, the daily reports of new concepts, new techniques, and new experimental findings which instantly interact to generate further progress. Our aim was to provide a starting point for those who are just beginning, and an opportunity for others to stop, take stock, and start in a new direction. My warmest thanks to all who contributed to this volume.

In this first integrated view, practically each of the world's leading experts has contributed to this one and only authoritative resource on the topic. Bringing systems biology to cellular energetics, they address in detail such novel concepts as metabolite channeling and medical aspects of metabolic syndrome and cancer.

The Porphyrins, Volume I: Structure and Synthesis, Part Ais the first in a series of seven volumes and covers topics like nomenclature, purification, and structural determination of porphyrins, metalloporphyrins, and other related compounds. This volume serves to be a critical review of the topics covered and presents a complete and comprehensible discussion on the chemistry and biochemistry of porphyrins. The chapters in the text tackle the history and geochemistry of porphyrins and related systems. Also covered and discussed in the chapters is the synthesis of porphyrins from mono-, di-, and tetrapyrrolic intermediates. The isolation and modification of porphyrins from natural sources are also discussed. Other related compounds are also included, such as metallo-, aza-, and N-methylporphyrins, and their synthesis and properties. This book is a good introduction and reference for students studying in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry.

As the title indicates, the theme of this book is the functions of biochromes in animals. Recent works on zoochromes, such as those of D. L. Fox (1953), H. M. Fox and VEVERS (1960) and VUILLAUME (1969), have been concerned primarily with the chemical nature and the taxonomic distribution of these materials, and although function has been considered where relevant this has not been the centre of interest and certainly not the basis for the arrangement of the subject matter. Functional significance is a profitable focus of interest, since it is the one theme which can make biochromatology a discrete and integral subject, and because it is the main interest in all biological fields. At present chromatology seems to be a particularly schizoid subject since it is clear that in metabolic functions biochromes are acting in a chemical capacity whereas integumental pigments function mainly biophysically, in neurological and behavioural contexts. It is profitable to attempt an integration by studying the functions of as many chromes as possible, from all aspects.

Advances in Metabolic Disorders, Volume 1 presents the application of biochemistry to the pathogenesis of human diseases. This book discusses the parathormone physiology and its deviations, as well as the origins and course of osteoporosis. The introductory chapters deal with the catabolism of glycogen; physiology of parathyroids; multiple enzymic defects; biochemical technology of glycogen storage disease; assay of parathyroid hormone; mechanisms of mitochondrial respiratory control; pathogenesis of primary osteoporosis; and nature of bone change. The subsequent chapters consider the definition and physiology of insulin antagonists and chemistry of parathyroid hormone. These topics are followed by discussions of the physiologic effects of aldosterone and the metabolic interrelationship between folate and vitamin B12 are presented. A chapter is devoted to the definition and treatment of hypoparathyroidism and hyperparathyroidism. The remaining chapters focus on the diagnosis of insulin antagonists in tissues, plasma, and serum. The book can provide useful information to doctors, students, and researchers.