Biochemistry: the tools of the trade

Physical Biochemistry: Principles and Applicationsedited by David SheehanJohn Wiley & Sons, 2000. $65.00 (333 pages)ISBN 0 471 98663 1As described by the author, the goal of this text was ‘…to produce a single volume covering the most widely used experimental approaches in a form [that] is accessible to life science students in fields such as biochemistry and molecular biology. Each aspect of physical biochemistry is explained by describing basic principles, terminology and equipment and is augmented by real-life examples to illustrate how experimental information is obtained’. The author also provides this qualifying caveat, ‘Mathematical equations are unavoidable in physical biochemistry, but these have been kept to a minimum in the interest of accessibility’. To be sure, this kind of text should be desirable and useful to biochemists seeking a thumbnail sketch of a particular biophysical tool, which is likely to be part of the modern biochemistry literature.The practical nature of the text as a key to unraveling biophysical measurements is shown in the first two tables in the introductory chapter, which inform the reader as to which chapters are relevant to particular physical and chemical attributes. The attributes covered by this text are shown here in Table 1Table 1.Table 1Important attributes of biomolecules that are amenable to study by biophysical techniquesAttributesTechniquesPhysical attributeMassMass spectrometry, electrophoresis, gel filtrationVolume and densityGel filtration, centrifugation, pulsed field gel electrophoresisChargeIon exchange chromatography, electrophoresis and chromatofocusingShapeChromatography, electrophoresis, crystallization, centrifugationEnergySpectroscopy, biocalorimetry Chemical attributeCompositionMass spectrometry, spectroscopyMolecular structureSpectroscopy, crystallizationCovalent bondsMass spectrometry, electrophoresisNon-covalent bondsChromatography, electrophoresis, spectroscopyNative and denatured structureChromatography, electrophoresisSolubilityChromatography, crystallography, precipitationComplex formationElectrophoresis, MS, spectroscopy, crystallographyThe author, David Sheehan, is clear about his system of allocating relative importance to topics in this text. The value of each technique is proportional to its current use in providing information about biochemical compounds.Not a great deal of time is spent on history. This no-nonsense approach allows the reader to quickly assess the relevance of a particular technique to the context of his or her specific need. This straightforward approach by the author saves words and provides the reader with the maximum range of techniques possible within the 333 pages of text. Even with this approach, and with the elimination of a great deal of mathematical complexity, the coverage of the subject is almost too brief.As an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopist studying metalloproteins for the past 35 years, I was surprised to find that my field was barely mentioned. ‘It must have been more important than that,’ I mused and whined. However, after thinking about it for a while, I realized that the author had to make many decisions of this type. The EPR spectroscopy of metalloproteins is a quantum mechanical discipline already well-covered in many 800-page texts. The author must have thought, ‘Why waste time on a subject outside the scope of this text? Just mention it in passing’.After I had recovered, I decided that this was what the author meant in the preface by ‘I have been guided in this [choice and emphasis] by my impression of the frequency with which molecular life scientists might encounter a topic in the research literature as well as the potential for major development in each area.’ Overall, I agree with his choices and with those made by the personnel listed as consultants for the text.Finally, I had a reaction to the relevance of the text. As an old physical chemist working in biology, I was surprised, seeing the list of modern techniques, at how much this list has changed over the past 40 years. For example, the text covers the parameters from an ultracentrifuge only briefly, spending much more time on chromatography. Just looking at the changes, one can see the need for a text keeping us up-to-date with the physical techniques. In summary, get this book soon, before it's out of date!