Membrane Proteins: Structures, Interactions and Models: Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Jerusalem Symposium on Quantum Chemistry and Biochemistry Held: 25 (Jerusalem Symposia) - Tapa dura

The 25th Jerusalem Symposium represents a most significant highlight in the development and history of these meetings. Living within the decimal system we have celebrated with much pleasure the lath and the 20th Jerusalem Symposia. With this one we experience a feeling of particular satisfaction because 25 years is different from, is more than, two decades and a half. It is a quarter of a century. It seems thus as if we have changed the dimension of our endeavour. In no way do we loose the sense of modesty with respect to the significance of these meetings. For the organizers, however, they do represent a continuity of efforts which we feel happy to have been able to carry out. At this occasion it seems useful to say a few words about the origin of the Jerusalem Symposia and to recall the name of a colleague who played an essential role in their creation and has been a most efficient and devoted co­ organizer of the seven first of them. This was Professor Ernst Bergmann, one of the most distinguished founders of Israeli Science and a world famous physico-organic chemist.

The main theme of the symposium reported in this book was the presentation and discussion of the direct and indirect evidence available on the three-dimensional structure of membrane proteins and on the interactions relevant to their functioning. Among the topics discussed are the lessons of the known 3D structures, the prospects in 3D structure determination (by X-rays, electron microscopy, neutron scattering, NMR, optical methods, site-directed mutagenesis, theoretical calculations and modeling, etc) and the interactions with lipids. The originality of the Symposium, reflected in the content of the book, was to bring together well-known specialists in the biochemistry of the proteins considered (bacteriorhodopsin, receptors, acetylcholine esterase, glycophorine, porines, etc) and experts in the physicochemical, chemical and theoretical methods utilized.