Bioelectrochemistry: Principles and Practice provides a comprehensive compilation of all the physicochemical aspects of the different biochemical and physiological processes. Macromolecules, essentially nucleic acids, proteins and complex carbohydrates, are the building blocks of cell structure and function. This fifth volume in the "Bioelectrochemistry" series deals essentially with water-soluble biomacromolecules, since the properties of membrane-bound proteins are considered in other volumes of this series. The first chapter provides an extensive review of the structure, chemical reactivity and electromagnetic properties of nucleic acids. The following five chapters concentrate on proteins, their structure, folding and function, the electrochemistry of redox proteins and voltammetric methods. Special attention is devoted to the field of thiol/disulfide exchange as well as to one particular class of proteins, the iron-sulfur proteins. The last chapter considers the chemistry and properties of glycosaminoglycans, the complex charged polysaccharides of the cell surface and extracellular matrix. This series is intended as a set of source books for graduate and postgraduate students as well as research workers at all levels in bioelectrochemistry.

Bioelectrochemistry conferences. journals and texts are be ginning to proliferate and to attract researchers and scholars with a bent for multiple disciplines, electrochemistry, electrical engineering, physics, biology and medicine. With the development of highly sophisticated apparatus, new techniques and embracing skills, bioelectrochemistry represents the area where searching questions can now be asked about processes of Life itself, not only how sub stances interact in vivo but what distinguishes animate from in animate matter. During this Joint Seminar, for example, it was pointed out that a human liver alive appeared mauve while in the isolated state it is brown, even though it is capable of a comprehensive range of biochem ical activities ordinarily encountered in laboratory "in vivo" sit uations. Bioelectrochemical studies are beginning to elucidate the growth of bone, the genesis and division of living cells, the transfer of energy and matter from one compartment to other compartments in a living system, with great promise for curative and preventative medicine. The organizers of this Seminar have been truly fortunate to be able to bring together workers who have been intimately associated with the origins and development of some of the more powerful concepts which have stimulated progress in the field of bioelectrochemistry. These include the solid state, semiconduction and structured water. By a happy circumstance a number of Australian researchers in this field were present in the United States. or en route thereto, at about the proposed dates of the Seminar.

Bioelectrochemistry represents an interdisciplinary scientific field linking together relevant areas of biology, medicine, chemistry, and physics. It is therefore not surprising that research in bioelectrochemistry requires the use of a great many experimental methods. These methods are, however, mostly from the methodological arsenal of classical natural sciences so that a description of general principles of common methods of biology, chemistry, physics, and medicine is not presented in this volume. Thus, this volume does not attempt to give an exhaustive survey of techniques used in bioelectrochemical research. The principles of several techniques and methodologies are mainly reviewed from the viewpoint of their specific application in studies of electrochemical and interfacial phenomena in various biological systems involving simple low-molecular-mass molecules of biological significance, biomacro molecules and their conjugates (like for instance chromatine or mem branes), cells and living organisms. The measurements of electrochemical impedance, voltammetric (po larographic) analysis, and spectroelectrochemistry represent a basis for analysis of molecules of biological significance in bulk of solution and at interfaces. These principles are reviewed in the first four chapters. The next three chapters demonstrate how these principles are utilized in voltammetric and interfacial analysis of biomacromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, polysaccharides, and viruses in vitro, in the development of biosensors with electrochemical transducers and in in vivo voltammetry.

Bioelectrochemistry: Fundamentals, Experimental Techniques and Application, covers the fundamental aspects of the chemistry, physics and biology which underlie this subject area. It describes some of the different experimental techniques that can be used to study bioelectrochemical problems and it describes various applications of biolelectrochemisty including amperometric biosensors, immunoassays, electrochemistry of DNA, biofuel cells, whole cell biosensors, in vivo applications and bioelectrosynthesis. By bringing together these different aspects, this work provides a unique source of information in this area, approaching the subject from a cross-disciplinary viewpoint.

As stated by Buckminster Fuller in Operation Manual for Spaceship Earth, "Synergy is the behavior of whole systems unpredicted by separately observed behaviors of any of the system's separate parts". In a similar vein, one might define an intellectual synergy as "an improvement in our understanding of the behavior of a system unpredicted by separately acquired viewpoints of the activities of such a system". Such considerations underlie, and provide a motivation for, an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of unraveling the deeper mysteries of cellular metabolism and organization, and have led a number of pioneering spirits, many represen ted in the pages which follow, to consider biological systems from an elec trochemical standpoint. is itself, of course, an interdisciplinary branch of Now electrochemistry science, and there is no doubt that many were introduced to it via Bockris and Reddy's outstanding, wide-ranging and celebrated textbook Modern Electrochemistry. If I am to stick my neck out, and seek to define bioelec trochemistry, I would take it to refer to "the study of the mutual interac tions of electrical fields and biological materials, including living systems".

Bioelectrochemistry is a fast growing field at the interface between electrochemistry and other sciences such as biochemistry, analytical chemistry and medicinal chemistry. In the recent years, the methods and the understanding of the fundamentals have seen significant progress, which has led to rapid development in the field. Here, the expert editors have carefully selected contributions to best reflect the latest developments in this hot and rapidly growing interdisciplinary topic. The resulting excellent and timely overview of this multifaceted field covers recent methodological advances, as well as a range of new applications for analytical detection, drug screening, tumor therapy, and for energy conversion in biofuel cells. This book is a must-have for all Electrochemists, Biochemists, Analytical Chemists, and Medicinal Chemists.

This is the first course devoted to bioelectrochemistry held within the frame work of the International School of Biophysics. Although this branch of scientific research is already about two centuries old, as a truly independent one it has been in a stage of lively development since only a few decades ago and this is why a first course at the E. Majorana Center was devoted to it. Since bioelectrochemistry consists of many sub-fields, it is impossible to include, even superficially, all of them in a short course lasting just a week, and therefore the chapter of redox-reactions was chosen for this first course as being most general in character. But even restricting the course to redox-reactions, only a few subjects could be included and therefore the choice among them was made considering the most general guidelines that could serve as a basis for the further study of individual problems. In this way we hope to give a sound basis to the study of and to stimulate further interest in this branch of both biological and physical chemistry. This dual interdisciplinary approach is, on the other hand, unavoidable if a more rigorous and logical attack on biological problems in living bodies is to be carried ahead. VII CONTENTS ix Symbols and acronyms Opening address A. BORSELLINO 1 Bioelectrochemistry and bioenergetics: an interdisciplinary survey G. MILAZZO 5 General criteria for the fulfilment of redox reactions R. BUVET 15 Photosynthesis - selected topics H.