Red Cell Membrane Transport in Health and Disease

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Daniel G.S. Capelluto

Lipids are no longer seen as molecules that only provide membrane structure and organization. Due to their amphipathic nature, lipids are localized both on the surface and internally in membranes in the cell, and at these locations, trigger signaling pathways by interacting with soluble proteins, typically through lipid-interacting domains and motifs. More importantly, interconversion of lipid species in these compartments is fundamental, not only by sustaining signaling but also by contributing to signaling pathways that link protein receptors with intracellular effectors. With contributions from eleven leading research teams, this book updates the most recent findings associated with lipid-mediated cell signaling in mammals and plants. Contributors give comprehensive overviews of the physiological role of sphingolipids and phospholipids and how they undergo synthesis and turnover. Emphasis on the structural aspects of protein-lipid interactions is compiled in several chapters with great detail, whereas fully described mechanisms of lipid-mediated membrane targeting and insertion are considered in others. Authors also discuss models and techniques used to characterize lipid-mediated membrane binding of proteins. In addition, several chapters highlight the correlation of abnormal intracellular levels of lipids with human diseases, thus, making this book a valuable resource for biochemists, biophysicists, cell biologists, and clinical scientists with interest in lipid-mediated signaling pathways.

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Hartmut Glossmann, Jörg Striessnig

The current volume provides detailed experimental protocols used to study plasma membrane ion channels as pharmacological targets. Coverage includes molecular and biochemical characterization of ion channels; fuctional analysis of ion channels after reconstitution, expression, or in cells; and specific methods and tools. This wealth of information will benefit academic and industrial researchers and graduate students in pharmacology, biochemistry, physiology, and biophysics.

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Amit Gefen

This book reviews the state-of-the-art in multiscale computer modeling, in terms of both accomplishments and challenges. The information in the book is particularly useful for biomedical engineers, medical physicists and researchers in systems biology, mathematical biology, micro-biomechanics and biomaterials who are interested in how to bridge between traditional biomedical engineering work at the organ and tissue scales, and the newer arenas of cellular and molecular bioengineering.

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Ji-Tao Wang

This book provides a framework for analysing complex systems for which classical thermodynamics is often not applicable. Since the success of the activated process in 1970, diamond growth with simultaneous graphite etching under low pressure has often been regarded as a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. A series of nonequilibrium phase diagrams, which agree excellently with the activated diamond experi- ments, have been calculated by the author and his coworkers on the basis of reaction coupling. The book goes on to de- monstrate how these lead to a complete new systematization of modern thermodynamics.