Highlights in Bioorganic Chemistry Wiley 2004.pdf

Carsten Schmuck, Helma Wennemers (Eds.)

Highlights in Bioorganic Chemistry

Methods and Applications

Editors:

This book was carefully produced.

Nevertheless, editors, authors and publisher

do not warrant the information contained

therein to be free of errors. Readers are

advised to keep in mind that statements,

data, illustrations, procedural details or

other items may inadvertently be

inaccurate.

Professor Dr. Carsten Schmuck

Department of Chemistry

University of W¨rzburg

Am Hubland

97074 W ¨ rzburg

Germany

Professor Dr. Helma Wennemers

Department of Chemistry

University of Basel

St. Johanns Ring 19

CH-4056 Basel

Switzerland

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2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.

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Foreword

There are two diﬀerent aspects to the large ﬁeld of Bioorganic Chemistry. In one of

them we use organic chemistry to learn about and inﬂuence biology. This area,

part of which is sometimes called Chemical Biology, includes the use of organic

chemistry to determine the chemical constitution of biological systems, and to de-

termine the chemical structures of the components. There is intellectual ﬂow from

chemistry into biology, as we study the chemical properties of isolated and or-

ganized biological systems in order to explain their properties in terms of ordinary

chemistry. This is in line with the general belief that we will ‘‘understand’’ biology

when we can explain it in chemical terms. However, as we study the properties of

biological molecules we also expand our understanding of chemistry itself, so in

this sense there is also intellectual ﬂow from biology to chemistry.

Another part of the eﬀort to use chemistry to understand and inﬂuence biology

is seen in the ﬁeld of medicinal chemistry. Here too there is intellectual ﬂow in

both directions across the chemistry-biology interface, as chemists take what is

known about the biology of disease and invent cures using chemicals, usually

synthetic chemicals. Success in this ﬁeld for chemists involves both ‘‘listening’’ to

biology and ‘‘speaking’’ with chemistry.

There is another important aspect of bioorganic chemistry in which chemists

observe the processes of natural biology and then invent new chemistry inspired by

what they see, in a ﬁeld I have named Biomimetic Chemistry. This activity has

been going on for a long time, as we admire what goes on in biology and accept

the challenge to imitate it. The imitation normally involves the principles that

Nature uses, not the exact details of the process. It has been said that a jumbo jet is

not just a scaled up pigeon. From birds we learned the principle of wings, but did

not imitate the detail of ﬂapping them. Thus in biomimetic chemistry we expand

the scope of chemistry by taking some inspiration from biology. The intellectual

ﬂow is from biology to chemistry.

This book, Highlights in Bioorganic Chemistry, describes exciting recent ad-

vances in all the aspects of the ﬁeld. Part 1 deals with Biomolecules and their

Conformations. Chapters on the natural chemistry of RNA, of b -amino acids, on

binding to DNA, on nucleic acid polymerases, on ribozymes and proteases, are

concerned with using chemistry tools to help us understand biological chemistry.

Part 2 deals with Non-Covalent Intermolecular Interactions. Here there is work on

Foreword

artiﬁcial receptors for natural molecules such as carbohydrates, amino acids, and

peptides. Part 3 deals brieﬂy with some aspects of Studies in Drug Development,

addressing diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and asthma. Part 4 of

the book is labeled Studies in Diagnostic Developments, Part 5 is concerned with

Catalysis by both natural and artiﬁcial enzymes, while part 6 covers Methodology,

Bioengineering, and Bioinspired Assemblies, what we have called Biomimetic

Chemistry. Its last chapter describes work on molecular motors, imitating the bio-

logical motors that drive the rotation of ﬂagellae.

The editors Carsten Schmuck and Helma Wennemers are part of a new and

exciting emphasis on bioorganic chemistry in Europe. The two met at Columbia

University when Schmuck was in the Breslow lab and Wennemers was working

with Clark Still, both in the area of biomimetic catalysis. The other authors are

leaders in the ﬁeld, largely from Germany but also including Switzerland and

Austria and one each from Italy and Australia. They have produced a book that re-

ﬂects the growing importance of bioorganic chemistry in Germany, Switzerland,

and Austria. It should be required reading for students and others who want to see

where chemistry is heading in the new century.

Ronald Breslow

Columbia University

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