John E. McMurry received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. Dr. McMurry is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Foundation Fellow. He has received several awards, which include the National Institutes of Health Career Development Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, and the Max Planck Research Award. In addition to The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways, he is also the author of Organic Chemistry, Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry, and Chemistry (with Robert Fay).

Tadhg P. Begley received his [...]. from National University of Ireland and his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Begley is the recipient of many awards, including the Merck Faculty Development Award and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. His research group uses the principles and techniques of organic chemistry to study complex organic transformations found in vitamin biosynthetic pathways. In addition to The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways, Dr. Begley has edited Cofactor Biosynthesis: A Mechanistic Perspective.

• The authors begin the book with a brief review chapter on the fundamental organic reaction mechanisms commonly found in biochemical pathways.
• Includes full chapters devoted to the major metabolic pathways of the main classes of biomolecules-lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, nucleotides, and secondary metabolites.
• The authors conclude with a summary of the reaction patterns and mechanisms frequently used in nature to effect chemical transformations.

1. Organic Mechanisms in Biological Chemistry

2. Biomolecules and Their Chirality

3. Lipids and Their Metabolism

5. Amino Acid Metabolism

6. Nucleotide Metabolism

7. Biosynthesis of Some Natural Products

8. A Summary of Biological Transformations

9. Chemical Principles of Enzymatic Catalysis

Appendixes

A. Visualizing Protein Structures Using PyMOL

B. Using the KEGG and BRENDA Databases

C. Answers to End-of-Chapter Problems

D. Abbreviations Used in this Book

Index