This textbook provides a thorough chemocentric view on the key small molecules of life, the human vitamins and their active coenzyme forms.

Alexander Todd, the 1957 Nobel laureate in chemistry is credited with the statement: “where there is life, there is phosphorus”. Phosphorus chemical biology underlies most of life’s reactions and processes, from the covalent bonds that hold RNA and DNA together, to the making and spending 75 kg of ATP every day, required to run almost all metabolic and mechanical events in cells. Authored by a renowned biochemist, The Chemical Biology of Phosphorus provides an in-depth, unifying chemical approach to the logic and reactivity of inorganic phosphate and its three major derivatives (anhydrides, mono- and diesters) throughout biology to examine why life depends on phosphorus. Covering the breadth of phosphorus chemistry in biology, this book is ideal for biochemistry students, postgraduates and researchers interested in the chemical logic of phosphate metabolites, energy generation, biopolymer accumulation and phosphoproteomics.

The Chemical Biology of Carbon examines chemical biology open to carbon-containing natural metabolites that allow both retrospective and predictive behaviours of both biosynthetic and degradative metabolism in primary and secondary pathways ideal for medicinal chemists, chemical biologists and postgraduate students.

The Chemical Biology of Nitrogen book provides a chemocentric approach to both the inorganic and organic chemical biology of nitrogen. Following an introduction to nitrogen trivalency the book progresses through the logic of inorganic nitrogen metabolism and organic nitrogen metabolites to nitrogen proteomics.

This volume aims to provide an in-depth view of the complete biochemistry of sulfur with an emphasis on aspects not covered elsewhere. Given its role in the formation of proteins and presence in the amino acids methionine and cysteine, sulfur is essential to life. Current literature on the biochemistry of sulfur is vast and widely dispersed, as such this volume is intended as a single-source for everything concerning sulfur biochemistry from metabolic roles of inorganic sulfur, to thiol and thioether chemical biology, to the university of cysteine chemistry in proteomes. Authored by a renowned biochemist and experienced writer and educator, this book is ideal for students and researchers in biochemistry, biology and the life sciences with an interest in sulfur and its role in life.

This single-source reference draws together the current knowledge of the vitamins’ biological properties in the context of human nutrition. Vitamins are co-enzymes, antioxidants or precursors of hormones and are therefore involved in a great many biochemical and physiological processes. They play a vital role in the maintenance of health, and there is evidence that dietary sources of vitamins have beneficial effects in the prevention of heart-related diseases, bone diseases and possibly cancer. Following introductory chapters on historical and nutritional aspects of vitamins, the next four chapters cover relevant and detailed aspects of physiology and functional anatomy, biochemistry, immunology and the regulation of protein synthesis by nuclear hormone receptors. These background chapters, supported by a glossary of terms, provide the scientific principles upon which vitamin functions are based. The following thirteen chapters deal with each vitamin in turn. Subject areas include chemical structure, intestinal absorption, transport, metabolism, biochemical and physiological actions, immunoregulatory properties, deficiency-related diseases and potential toxicity. An extensive bibliography refers the reader to the original research literature. Vitamins is aimed at nutritionists, biochemists, physiologists and physicians whether they be researchers, teachers or students. Food scientists, food technologists and many others working in the health professions will also find much of use and interest in the book. The inclusion of the theoretical principles in the background chapters makes the book an ideal starting point for those working outside the area who need a solid overview of the subject.