Alberte Pullman - Böcker

As the First International Conference on Water and Ions in Biological Systems (Bucharest, June 25-27, 1980) was appreciated as a success, a second one was organized in the fall of the year 1982 under the sponsorship of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, the Romanian Biophysical Society (Union of Societies for Medical Sciences in the Socialist Republic of Romania) and in co­ operation with the International Union for Pure and Applied Bio­ physics (IUPAB). The responsibility for the scientific program and organization of the Second Conference on Water fell on an International Scientific Committee which included Prof. J. Tigyi (Pees), President of the UNESCO Expert Committee on Biophysics, Prof. K. Wuthrich, Secretary General of IUPAB and Prof. H. Eisenberg, (member of the IUPAB Council) under the guidance of an Executive Board whose members were Prof. J. Jaz (representative of UNESCO), Prof. B. Pullman (Vice­ President of IUPAB) and Prof. V. Vasilescu (President of the Romanian Biophysical Society). The Meeting was attended by more than 250 specialists including 150 Romanian participants and others from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, England, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, USSR, USA, Venezuela, Yugoslavia. The proceedings of the Conference took place in the Medical Faculty of Bucharest. The theoretical and practical importance of the Meeting was pointed out by the speakers, among whom were Prof.

The main theme of the symposium reported in this book was the presentation and discussion of the direct and indirect evidence available on the three-dimensional structure of membrane proteins and on the interactions relevant to their functioning. Among the topics discussed are the lessons of the known 3D structures, the prospects in 3D structure determination (by X-rays, electron microscopy, neutron scattering, NMR, optical methods, site-directed mutagenesis, theoretical calculations and modeling, etc) and the interactions with lipids. The originality of the Symposium, reflected in the content of the book, was to bring together well-known specialists in the biochemistry of the proteins considered (bacteriorhodopsin, receptors, acetylcholine esterase, glycophorine, porines, etc) and experts in the physicochemical, chemical and theoretical methods utilized.

Gathering together a number of experts in the world, the 27th Jerusalem Symposium was devoted to the theme of the modelling of biomolecular structures and mechanisms. As a result of recent growth in both importance and audience, the papers contained in this volume present an evaluation of the status of the present knowledge in this field. The main topics covered by this year's Symposium include nucleic acids and their interactions, proteins and their interaction, membranes and their interactions, enzymatic processes and the pharmacological and medical aspects of these subjects. Readers should benefit from the interdisciplinary approach which provides coverage of both theoretical and experimental advances.