Edited by
C. Balny, Unite 128 de l'INSERM, CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
K. Heremans, Department of Chemistry, KUL, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
P. Masson, CRSSA, Dept. Toxicology, Enzymology Unit, BP 87, F-38702 La Tronche Cedex, France
Description
This is the first book covering all aspects of high pressure biochemistry and biophysics of proteins.
Hydrostatic pressure is a powerful
tool for study of biological systems. As a thermodynamic parameter, hydrostatic pressure has been known for a century to act on biological
materials in a similar, but not identical, way to temperature. However, pressure was disregarded for a long time by biochemists mainly
because the basic concepts (and the thermodynamics) focused on the chemical reactions involved and because general ideas on what pressure
can add to the understanding of the behaviour of proteins were lacking. In recent decades, technological progress in the field of physics
has shown, along with parameters such as temperature and solvent conditions, that pressure can be used for more refined thermodynamic
and kinetic descriptions of biological processes and regulation of biological systems. The effects of pressure on proteins, nucleoproteins
and membranes have recently been reviewed and several proceedings books have been published.
