How Proteins Work

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.

Contents 1. Protein Structure and Evolution2. Protein Domains3. Oligomers4. Protein Interactions in vivo5. How Enzymes Work6. Protein Flexibility and Dynamics7. How Proteins Make Things Move8. How Proteins Transmit Signals9. Protein Complexes: Molecular Machines10. Multi-Enzyme Complexes11. Techniques for Studying Proteins

Mike Williamson did his PhD and subsequent research at the University of Cambridge before moving to the lab of Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich in Switzerland. There he worked on the first NMR structure of a globular protein. He is a professor of Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield.