Commission on
Biophysical Chemistry (I.7)
Summary of Minutes
of Commission Meeting at IUPAC General Assembly, Berlin, Germany, 8-9
August 1999
"Recommendations for the presentation of NMR structures
of proteins and nucleic acids" by J. L. Markley, A. Bax, Y. Arata, C.
W. Hilbers, R. Kaptein, B. D. Sykes, P. E. Wright, and K. Wüthrich
has been published in Pure and Applied Chemistry (Vol. 70, No.
1, pp. 117-142, 1998). To broaden its scientific impact, it has also
been published in the Journal of Biomolecular NMR, the European
Journal of Biochemistry, and Biochemistry. This important
report will help to define how NMR results on macromolecules will be
reported in the literature. Hans-J�rgen Hinz and Fred Schwarz reported
on the status of their project "Recommendations for the measurement
and the analysis of results obtained on biological substances with differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC)." Their report contains a discussion of the
basis of DSC as applied to biochemical denaturations, how one should
use these instruments, and how the results should be analyzed and presented
in the literature. This document is close to its final form. A major
addition to the previous version is the inclusion of experimental results
for lysozyme unfolding which were obtained from several participating
laboratories. In a joint meeting with the Electroanalytical Chemistry
Commission (V.5), Daniel Thévenot reported on his project "Electrochemical
biosensors: Recommended definitions and classification." This project,
which is concerned primarily with terminology pertinent to electrochemical
biosensors, is also close to completion now that the issue of 'single-use"
and "multiple-use" biosensors appears to have been resolved.
Two additional projects may be completed in the near
future: "Redox potential measurements of proteins", which was reported
on by George Wilson, and "Terminology in the field of lipid vesicles
(liposomes)", which was reported on by Helmut Hauser. The latter project
would have been completed except for the untimely death of Dimitri Papohadjopoulos,
a key member of the working party. Two future projects that the Commission
sees value in include "Recommendations for the measurement and analysis
of results obtained by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)" and "Guidelines
for the presentation of the results from computational chemistry."
Productive, joint meetings were also held with Commission
I.2 (Thermodynamics), Commission I.3 (Electrochemistry), Commission
I.6 (Colloid, Surface Chemistry, and Catalysis), and Commission V.5
(Electroanalytical Chemistry). Kurt Wüthrich will succeed Helmut
Hauser on 1 January 2000 as the Chairman of the Commission on Biophysical
Chemistry (I.7).
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Robert N. Goldberg
Secretary, IUPAC Commission
on Biophysical Chemistry I.7