Determining the crystal structure of TRPV6

Series Preface

The concept of signal transduction is now long established as a central tenet of biological sciences. Since the inception of the field close to 50 years ago, the number and variety of signal transduction pathways, cascades, and networks have steadily increased and now constitute what is often regarded as a bewildering array of mechanisms by which cells sense and respond to extracellular and intracellular environmental stimuli. It is not an exaggeration to state that virtually every cell function is dependent on the detection, amplification, and integration of these signals. Moreover, there is increasing appreciation that in many disease states, aspects of signal transduction are critically perturbed.

Our knowledge of how information is conveyed and processed through these cellular molecular circuits and biochemical switches has increased enormously in scope and complexity since this series was initiated 15 years ago. Such advances would not have been possible without the supplementation of older technologies, drawn chiefly from cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, with newer methods that make use of sophisticated genetic approaches, as well as structural biology, imaging, bioinformatics, and systems biology analysis.

The overall theme of this series continues to be the presentation of the wealth of up-to-date research methods applied to the many facets of signal transduction. Each volume is assembled by one or more editors who are preeminent in their specialty. In turn, the guiding principle for editors was to recruit chapter authors who can describe procedures and protocols with which they are intimately familiar in a reader-friendly format. The intent is to assure that each volume is of maximum practical value to a broad audience, including students and researchers just entering an area, as well as seasoned investigators.

It is hoped that the information contained in the books of this series will constitute a useful resource to the life sciences research community well into the future.

Joseph Eichberg
Michael Xi Zhu
Series Editors