Physical Biology: From Atoms To Medicine

From Atoms to Medicine

Ahmed H Zewail

• Publisher: ICP
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN:
  9781848161993
  9781848161993
• eBook ISBN:
  9781848162013
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Cell Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This is an avant-garde book edited by Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail with contributions from eminent scientists including four Nobel prize winners. The perspectives of these world leaders in physics, chemistry, and biology define potential new frontiers at the interface of disciplines and including physical, systems, and synthetic biology.This book brings about the confluence of concepts and tools, and that of different disciplines, to address significant problems of our time: visualization; theory and computation for complexity; macromolecular function, protein folding and misfolding; and systems integration from cells to consciousness. The scope of tools is wide-ranging, spanning imaging, crystallography, microfluidics, single-molecule spectroscopy, and synthetic probe targeting. Concepts such as dynamic self-assembly, molecular recognition, non-canonical amino acids, and others are covered in various chapters as they are cornerstones in building the trilogy description of behavior-structure, dynamics, and function.The volume is uniquely structured to provide overviews with historical perspectives on the evolution of ideas and on the future of physical biology and biological complexity, from atoms to medicine.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Prologue by Ahmed H. Zewail
• Chapter 1 The Preoccupations of Twenty-First-Century Biology David Baltimore
• Chapter 2 The World as Physics, Mathematics and Nothing Else Alexander Varshavsky
• Chapter 3 Physical Biology: 4D Visualization of Complexity Ahmed H. Zewail
• Chapter 4 Revolutionary Developments from Atomic to Extended Structural Imaging John Meurig Thomas
• Chapter 5 Physical Biology at the Crossroads Carlos J. Bustamante
• Chapter 6 The Challenge of Quasi-Regular Structures in Biology Roger D. Kornberg
• Chapter 7 The Future of Biological X-Ray Analysis Douglas C. Rees
• Chapter 8 Reinterpreting the Genetic Code: Implications for Macromolecular Design, Evolution and Analysis David A. Tirrell
• Chapter 9 Designing Ligands to Bind Tightly to Proteins George M. Whitesides, Phillip W. Snyder, Demetri T. Moustakas, and Katherine A. Mirica
• Chapter 10 Biology by the Numbers Rob Phillips
• Chapter 11 Eppur si muove Michele Parrinello
• Chapter 12 Protein Folding and Beyond: Energy Landscapes and the Organization of Living Matter in Time and Space Peter G. Wolynes
• Chapter 13 Protein Folding and Misfolding: From Atoms to Organisms Christopher M. Dobson
• Chapter 14 A Systems Approach to Medicine Will Transform Healthcare Leroy Hood
• Chapter 15 The Neurobiology of Consciousness Christof Koch and Florian Mormann
• Chapter 16 Computer-Aided Drug Discovery: Physics-based Simulations from the Molecular to the Cellular Level J. Andrew McCammon
• Chapter 17 Precision Measurements in Biology Stephen R. Quake
• Chapter 18 Potassium Channels and the Atomic Basis of Selective Ion Conduction Roderick MacKinnon
• The 2007 Welch Award Papers
• Biographies