This book illustrates the importance and significance of the molecular (physical and chemical) and evolutionary (gene fusion) principles of protein-protein and domain-domain interactions towards the understanding of cell division, disease mechanism and target definition in drug discovery. It describes the complex issues associated with this phenomenon using cutting edge advancement in Bioinformatics and Bioinformation Discovery. The chapters provide current information pertaining to the types of protein-protein complexes (homodimers, heterodimers, multimer complexes) in context with various specific and sensitive biological functions. The significance of such complex formation in human biology in the light of molecular evolution is also highlighted using several examples. The chapters also describe recent advancements on the molecular principles of protein-protein interaction with reference to evolution towards target identification in drug discovery. Finally, the book also elucidates a comprehensive yet a representative description of a large number of challenges associated with the molecular interaction of proteins.

Given the immense progress achieved in elucidating protein-protein complex structures and in the field of protein interaction modeling, there is great demand for a book that gives interested researchers/students a comprehensive overview of the field. This book does just that. It focuses on what can be learned about protein-protein interactions from the analysis of protein-protein complex structures and interfaces. What are the driving forces for protein-protein association? How can we extract the mechanism of specific recognition from studying protein-protein interfaces? How can this knowledge be used to predict and design protein-protein interactions (interaction regions and complex structures)? What methods are currently employed to design protein-protein interactions, and how can we influence protein-protein interactions by mutagenesis and small-molecule drugs or peptide mimetics?The book consists of about 15 review chapters, written by experts, on the characterization of protein-protein interfaces, structure determination of protein complexes (by NMR and X-ray), theory of protein-protein binding, dynamics of protein interfaces, bioinformatics methods to predict interaction regions, and prediction of protein-protein complex structures (docking and homology modeling of complexes, etc.) and design of protein-protein interactions. It serves as a bridge between studying/analyzing protein-protein complex structures (interfaces), predicting interactions, and influencing/designing interactions.

Gabriel Waksman Institute of Structural Molecular Biology, Birkbeck and University College London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom Address for correspondence: Professor Gabriel Waksman Institute of Structural Molecular Biology Birkbeck and University College London Malet Street London WC1E 7H United Kingdom Email: g. waksman@bbk. ac. uk and g. waksman@ucl. ac. uk Phone: (+44) (0) 207 631 6833 Fax: (+44) (0) 207 631 6833 URL: http://people. cryst. bbk. ac. uk/?ubcg54a Gabriel Waksman is Professor of Structural Molecular Biology at the Institute of Structural Molecular Biology at UCL/Birkbeck, of which he is also the director. Before joining the faculty of UCL and Birkbeck, he was the Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis (USA). The rapidly evolving ?eld of protein science has now come to realize the ubiquity and importance of protein–protein interactions. It had been known for some time that proteins may interact with each other to form functional complexes, but it was thought to be the property of only a handful of key proteins. However, with the advent of hi- throughput proteomics to monitor protein–protein interactions at an organism level, we can now safely state that protein–protein interactions are the norm and not the exception.

This book is indexed in Chemical Abstracts ServiceThe interactions of proteins with other molecules are important in many cellular activities. Investigations have been carried out to understand the recognition mechanism, identify the binding sites, analyze the the binding affinity of complexes, and study the influence of mutations on diseases. Protein interactions are also crucial in structure-based drug design.This book covers computational analysis of protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid and protein-ligand interactions and their applications. It provides up-to-date information and the latest developments from experts in the field, using illustrations to explain the key concepts and applications. This volume can serve as a single source on comparative studies of proteins interacting with proteins/DNAs/RNAs/carbohydrates and small molecules.

The purpose of Protein-Protein Recognition is to bring together concepts and systems pertaining to protein-protein interactions in a single unifying volume. In the light of the information from the genome sequencing projects and the increase in structural information it is an opportune time totry to make generalizations about how and why proteins form complexes with each other. The emphasis of the book is on heteromeric complexes (complexes in which each of the components can exist in an unbound state) and will use well-studied model systems to explain the processes of formingcomplexes. After an introductory section on the kinetics, thermodynamics, analysis, and classification of protein-protein interactions, weak, intermediate, and high affinity complexes are dealt with in turn. Weak affinity complexes are represented by electron transfer proteins and integrincomplexes. Anti-lysozyme antibodies, the MHC proteins and their interactions with T-cell receptors, and the protein interactions of eukaryotic signal transduction are the systems used to explain complexes with intermediate affinities. Finally, tight binding complexes are represented by theinteraction of protein inhibitors with serine proteases and by nuclease inhibitor complexes. Throughout the chapters common themes are the technologies which have had the greatest impact, how specificity is determined, how complexes are stabilized, and medical and industrial applications.

Innovative and forward-looking, this volume focuses on recent achievements in this rapidly progressing field and looks at future potential for development. The first part provides a basic understanding of the factors governing protein-ligand interactions, followed by a comparison of key experimental methods (calorimetry, surface plasmon resonance, NMR) used in generating interaction data. The second half of the book is devoted to insilico methods of modeling and predicting molecular recognition and binding, ranging from first principles-based to approximate ones. Here, as elsewhere in the book, emphasis is placed on novel approaches and recent improvements to established methods. The final part looks at unresolved challenges, and the strategies to address them. With the content relevant for all drug classes and therapeutic fields, this is an inspiring and often-consulted guide to the complexity of protein-ligand interaction modeling and analysis for both novices and experts.

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Computational Learning Theory, COLT 2003, and the 7th Kernel Workshop, Kernel 2003, held in Washington, DC in August 2003. The 47 revised full papers presented together with 5 invited contributions and 8 open problem statements were carefully reviewed and selected from 92 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on kernel machines, statistical learning theory, online learning, other approaches, and inductive inference learning.