Williamson (biochemistry, U. of Sheffield) has created a textbook from courses he teaches to intermediate and advanced undergraduates, maintaining his discursive style that sometimes goes off on a tangent and weaves in analogies and examples liberally. Students should have completed an introductory course in biochemistry, and may have further background in chemistry, biology, or physics. Among his topics are protein domains, how enzymes work, how proteins transmit signals, multi-enzyme complexes, and techniques for studying proteins. Garland Science is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
How Proteins Work is an up-to-date and authoritative account of protein function in living systems, explained within the governing parameters of physics, chemistry, and evolution. This text will enable advanced undergraduate students in biochemistry and biophysics to understand the relationships among protein function, structure, and dynamics. It will also serve as a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers looking for a reference on the fundamentals underlying protein function.
By providing an integrated view of proteins at both a cellular and systemic level, this textbook shows how evolution drives proteins to adopt domain structures that combine to achieve biological outcomes. The association of proteins into dimers, molecular machines, and multi-enzymatic complexes enables them to achieve catalytic and functional efficiency.
