Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dr Despo Papachristodoulou is a Reader in Biochemistry and Medical Education at Kings College London. Her interests include metabolism and nutrition, obesity, diabetes and diabetic complications, medical education and curriculum development. Dr Papachristodoulou has a long experience of teaching Biochemistry and Nutrition to Medical, Dental and Biomedical undergraduates and is lead of the Professional/Graduate Entry to Medicine programme at Kings College.Dr Alison Snape is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Teaching Department of Biochemistry at King's College London. Her interests include regulation of gene expression and differentiation in early embryonic development. Dr Snape has extensive experience of teaching biochemistry and molecular biology to undergraduates and organises modules that are taken by first year students in bioscience and nutrition programmes.

• Part 1: Basic concepts of life 1: The basic molecular themes of life 2: Cells and viruses 3: Energy considerations in biochemistryPart 2: Structure and function of proteins and membranes 4: The structure of proteins 5: Methods in protein investigation 6: Enzymes 7: The cell membrane and membrane proteins 8: Muscle contraction, the cytoskeleton, and molecular motorsPart 3: Metabolism and nutrition 9: General principles of nutrition 10: Food digestion, absorption and distribution to the tissues 11: The storage fuels: Mechanisms of transport, storage, and mobilization of carbohydrate and fat 12: Principles of energy release from food 13: Glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and the electron transport system 14: Energy release from fat 15: An alternative pathway of glucose oxidation: The pentose phosphate pathway 16: Synthesis of glucose (gluconeogenesis) 17: Synthesis of fat and related compounds 18: Nitrogen metabolism: amino acid metabolism 19: Nitrogen metabolism: nucleotide metabolism 20: Mechanisms of metabolic control and their applications to metabolic integration 21: Raising electrons of water back up the energy scale: photosynthesisPart 4: Information storage and utilization 22: The genome 23: DNA synthesis, repair and recombination 24: Gene transcription 25: Protein synthesis and controlled protein breakdown 26: Control of gene expression 27: Protein sorting and delivery 28: Manipulating DNA and genesPart 5: Cells and tissues 29: Cell signalling 30: The cell cycle, cell division, cell death and cancerPart 6: Protective mechanisms against disease 31: Blood clotting, xenobiotic metabolism, and reactive oxygen species 32: The immune system

Easy to read with good use of simple figures and plenty of internal cross-references to other chapters or relevant pages. I was impressed with the inclusion of some very up to date findings.