Table of Contents

Part 1: Basic concepts of life 1. The basic molecular themes of life 2. Cells and viruses 3. Energy considerations in biochemistry Part 2: Structure and function of proteins and membranes 4. The structure of proteins 5. Methods in protein investigation 6. Enzymes 7. The cell membrane and membrane proteins 8. Muscle contraction, the cytoskeleton, and molecular motors Part 3: Metabolism and Nutrition 9. General principles of nutrition 10. Food digestion, absorption, and distribution to the tissues 11. Mechanisms of transport, storage, and mobilization of dietary components 12. Principles of energy release from food 13. Glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and the electron transport system 14. Energy release from fat 15. An alternative pathway of glucose oxidation. The pentose phosphate pathway 16. Synthesis of glucose (gluconeogenesis) 17. Synthesis of fat and related compounds 18. Nitrogen metabolism: amino acid metabolism 19. Nitrogen metabolism: nucleotide metabolism 20. Mechanisms of metabolic control and their applications to metabolic integration 21. Raising electrons of water back up the energy scale — photosynthesis Part 4: Information storage and utilization 22. The genome 23. DNA synthesis, repair, and recombination 24. Gene transcription 25. Protein synthesis and controlled protein breakdown 26. Control of gene expression 27. Protein sorting and delivery 28. Manipulating DNA and genes Part 5: Cells and tissues 29. Cell signalling 30. The cell cycle, cell division, and cell death 31. Cancer Part 6: Protective mechanisms against disease 32. Special topics: blood clotting, xenobiotic metabolism, reactive oxygen species 33. The immune system

About the Author

Dr Despo Papachristodoulou is Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and also Head of Preclinical Medicine at King's College London. Her research interests include diabetes and diabetic complications, insulin metabolism, intermediary metabolism, nutrition, medical education, and curriculum development. Dr Alison Snape is Programme Director for the BSc in Biomedical Science and also Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at King's College London. Her research interests include gene expression and differentiation in early embryonic development. Dr Snape has extensive experience of teaching biochemistry and molecular biology to undergraduates and organises modules for first year students of their BSc Biosciences programmes.

Reviews

Easy to read with good use of simple figures and plenty of internal cross-references to other chapters or relevant pages. I was impressed with the inclusion of some very up to date findings.
*Dr Peter Morris, School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University*

I don't know of any other biology/biochemistry book that explains DNA replication as well as this one
*Lynn Rogers, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, Adelaide University*

The style is very clear, logical and systematic. The diagrams complement the text well
*Dr Momna Hejmadi, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath*