Biopolymer Research Trends

Biopolymers are a special class of polymers produced by living organisms. Starch, proteins and peptides, DNA, and RNA are all examples of biopolymers, in which the monomer units, respectively, are sugars, amino acids, and nucleic acids.A major but defining difference between polymers and biopolymers can be found in their structures. Polymers, including biopolymers, are made of repetitive units called monomers. Biopolymers inherently have a well defined structure: The exact chemical composition and the sequence in which these units are arranged is called the primary structure. Many biopolymers spontaneously fold into characteristic compact shapes (see also "protein folding" as well as secondary structure and tertiary structure), which determine their biological functions and depend in a complicated way on their primary structures. Structural biology is the study of the structural properties of the biopolymers. In contrast most synthetic polymers have much simpler and more random (or statistic) structures. This book presents leading-edge research from around the world in this dynamic field.