Joseph D. Puglisi - Böcker

This volume is a collection of articles from the Proceedings of the International School of Structural Biology and Magnetic Resonance 7th Course: Structure, Structure and Biophysics – New Technologies for Current Challenges in Biology and Beyond. This NATO Advance Study Institute (ASI) was held in Erice (Italy) at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture on 22 June through 3 July 2005. The ASI brought together a diverse group of experts in the fields of structural biology, biophysics, and physics. Prominent lecturers, from seven different countries, and students from around the world participated in the NATO ASI organized by Professors Joseph Puglisi (Stanford University, California, USA) and Alexander Arseniev (Moscow, RU). Advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography have allowed the thr- dimensional structures of many biological macromolecules and their complexes, including the ribosome and RNA polymerase to be solved. Fundamental principles of NMR spectroscopy and dynamics, X-ray crystallography, computation, and experimental dynamics were taught in the context of important biological applications. The ASI addressed the treatment and detection of bioterrorism agents, and focused on critical partner country priorities in biotechnology, materials, and drug discovery. The range of topics here represents the diversity of critical problems between structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, in which lies the fertile ground of drug development, biotechnology, and new materials. The individual articles represent the state of the art in each area and provide a guide to the original literature in this rapidly developing field.

This volume is a collection of articles from the Proceedings of the International School of Structural Biology and Magnetic Resonance 7th Course: Structure, Structure and Biophysics – New Technologies for Current Challenges in Biology and Beyond. This NATO Advance Study Institute (ASI) was held in Erice (Italy) at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture on 22 June through 3 July 2005. The ASI brought together a diverse group of experts in the fields of structural biology, biophysics, and physics. Prominent lecturers, from seven different countries, and students from around the world participated in the NATO ASI organized by Professors Joseph Puglisi (Stanford University, California, USA) and Alexander Arseniev (Moscow, RU). Advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography have allowed the thr- dimensional structures of many biological macromolecules and their complexes, including the ribosome and RNA polymerase to be solved. Fundamental principles of NMR spectroscopy and dynamics, X-ray crystallography, computation, and experimental dynamics were taught in the context of important biological applications. The ASI addressed the treatment and detection of bioterrorism agents, and focused on critical partner country priorities in biotechnology, materials, and drug discovery. The range of topics here represents the diversity of critical problems between structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, in which lies the fertile ground of drug development, biotechnology, and new materials. The individual articles represent the state of the art in each area and provide a guide to the original literature in this rapidly developing field.

This ASI brought together a diverse group of experts who span virology, biology, biophysics, chemistry, physics and engineering.  Prominent lecturers representing world renowned scientists from nine (9) different countries, and students from around the world representing eighteen (18) countries, participated in the ASI organized by Professors Joseph Puglisi (Stanford University, USA) and Alexander Arseniev (Moscow, RU).  The central hypothesis underlying this ASI was that interdisciplinary research, merging principles of physics, chemistry and biology, can drive new discovery in detecting and fighting chemical and bioterrorism agents, lead to cleaner environments and improved energy sources, and help propel development in NATO partner countries.  At the end of the ASI students had an appreciation of how to apply each technique to their own particular research problem and to demonstrate that multifaceted approaches and new technologies are needed to solve the biological challenges of our time.  The course succeeded in training a new generation of biologists and chemists who will probe the molecular basis for life and disease.