1.1 Introduction: Why Proteins are Interesting.

1.2 Amino Acids as the Building Bricks of Proteins.

1.3 Properties of the Amino Acids.

1.4 The Peptide Bond.

1.5 Terminology and Shorthands.

1.6 Composition and Sequence.

1.7 Electrical Charges on Peptides and Proteins.

1.8 An (Almost) Infinite Variety of Structures.

1.9 An Example of Protein Structure Insulin.

2. Chemical Synthesis of Peptides.

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 Principles of Peptide Synthesis.

2.3 Solution and Solid-phase Approaches to Synthesis.

2.4 Protecting Groups.

2.5 The Coupling Reaction.

2.6 Linkage to the Solid Support in SPPS.

2.7 Purifying and Characterizing the Product.

2.8 Racemization During Peptide Synthesis.

2.9 An Example of Peptide Synthesis.

3. Protein Purification.

3.1 Nature of the Problem.

3.2 Approaches to a Solution.

3.3 Specific Techniques.

3.4 A Typical Purification.

4. Determination of the Covalent Structures of Peptides and Proteins.

4.1 Introduction.

4.2 Relative Molecular Mass and Subunit Composition.

4.3 Amino Acid Analysis.

4.4 N-terminal Analysis.

4.5 Sequence Analysis by Chemical Methods.

4.6 Sequencing using Mass Spectrometry.

5. Proteins in Three Dimensions.

5.1 Introduction: The Anatomy of Crambin.

5.2 Conformations of the Polypeptide Backbone.

5.3 Regular Secondary Structures.

5.4 Factors Determining the Three-dimensional Structures of Proteins.

5.5 Stability of the Folded State and Ways of Measuring It.

5.6 Examples of How Proteins Work.

6. Protein Chemistry In Silico.

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Protein Databases.

6.3 Molecular Modeling.

6.4 Sequence Searching and Comparison.

6.5 Protein Evolution.

6.6 Prediction of Three-dimensional Structures.

6.7 Proteomics.

Answers to Problems.

Subject Index.