Water and Biomolecules

Kunihiro Kuwajima is Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience. He also serves as a professor at the Institute for Molecular Science and at the Graduate University for Adavanced Studies (SOKENDAI). His major research interests are protein folding and molecular chaperones.Yuji Goto is Professor of Protein Science at the Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University. His major research interests are protein folding and misfolding including amyloid fibril formation.Fumio Hirata is Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the Institute for Molecular Science. He also serves as a professor at the Graduate University for Adavanced Studies (SOKENDAI). His major interests are molecular theory of chemical processes in solution.Mikio Kataoka is Professor of Biophysics at the Graduate School of Materials Science at Nara Institute of Science and Technology. He also serves as a group leader of Neutron Biophysics Group at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. His major research interests are the molecular basis of protein folding and functioning. He is also interested in the photoenergy conversion mechanism of light absorbing proteins.

• Mapping Protein Folding Landscapes by NMR Relaxation.- Experimental and Simulation Studies of the Folding/Unfolding of Goat ?-Lactalbumin.- Transition in the Higher-order Structure of DNA in Aqueous Solution.- Generalized-Ensemble Algorithms for Studying Protein Folding.- Protein Folding and Binding: Effective Potentials, Replica Exchange Simulations, and Network Models.- Functional Unfolded Proteins: How, When, Where, and Why?.- Structure of the Photointermediate of Photoactive Yellow Protein and the Propagation Mechanism of Structural Change.- Time-Resolved Detection of Intermolecular Interaction of Photosensor Proteins.- Volumetric Properties of Proteins and the Role of Solvent in Conformational Dynamics.- A Statistical Mechanics Theory of Molecular Recognition.- Computational Studies of Protein Dynamics.- Biological Functions of Trehalose as a Substitute for Water.- Protein Misfolding Diseases and the Key Role Played by the Interactions of Polypeptides with Water.- Effect of UV Light on Amyloidogenic Proteins: Nucleation and Fibril Extension.- Real-Time Observation of Amyloid Fibril Growth by Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy.

From the reviews:“The book covers the physical chemistry of biological processes that involve the joint action of biomolecules and water … . the book contains some very interesting and well-written contributions to the physical chemistry of life processes that I can recommend to researchers working in this field. Some chapters also present extremely well-written overviews that would be interesting to read also for non-specialists. … this volume contains a pronounced variety of contributions both in their subject matter as well as the quality of presentation.”­­­ (Rudolf Podgornik, Journal of Biological Physics, Vol. 36, April, 2010)