The transduction of signals from the extracellular space across the plasma membrane into the interior of cells and ultimately to the nucleus, where in - sponse to such external signals the transcription of the genetic code is inf- enced, belongs to the most fundamental and important events in the regulation of the life cycle of cells. During recent years several signal transduction cascades have been elucidated which regulate, for instance, the growth and the prolife- tion of organisms as diverse as mammals, flies, worms and yeast. The general picture which emerged from these investigations...

Improvement of the catalytic properties of biological catalysts is equally important in the optimization of industrial processes as in the fundamental understanding of the catalytic machinery at the molecular level. The approaches taken are diverse and span from purely result-oriented, but nevertheless methodologically subtle, making and screening of combinatorial libraries to highly sophisticated tailoring of the environment of active sites. This volume illustrates four different concepts for modifying a given biocatalyst framework or create novel functions using Nature's basic building...

In nature, biological organisms produce mineralized tissues such as bone, teeth, diatoms, and shells. Biomineralization is the sophisticated process of production of these inorganic minerals by living organisms. Construction of organic inorganic hybrid materials with controlled mineralization analogous to those produced by nature has recently received much attention because it can aid in understanding the mechanisms of the biomineralization process and development of biomimetic materials processing. The biomineralization ? processes use aqueous solutions at temperatures below 100 C and no...

With contributions be numerous experts.