The Amphipathic Helix

The Amphipathic Helix is a comprehensive volume discussing amphipathic helices in systems as diverse as serum lipoproteins, lung surfactant, cytotoxic peptides, ion channels, mitochondrial targeting, peptide hormones, G proteins, T-cell recognition, DNA binding proteins, and antifreeze proteins. The book also includes general introductory material that defines amphipathic helices, discusses methods to identify amphipathic helical segments from the amino acid sequence of a protein, illustrates how amphipathic helices can be used in the de novo design of peptide and protein structures, and describes how these helices stabilize protein structures. There is also a section on techniques to determine helix orientation in a membrane environment using polarized attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy or solid state NMR spectroscopy. Recent developments on all these topics have been discussed by leading experts in this reference for researchers and students in biochemistry, biophysics, and pharmacology.