IntechOpen Book Series Biochemistry

Volume 32

### Aims and Scope of the Series

Biochemistry, the study of chemical transformations occurring within living organisms, impacts all of the life sciences, from molecular crystallography and genetics, to ecology, medicine and population biology. Biochemistry studies macromolecules - proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids –their building blocks, structures, functions and interactions. Much of biochemistry is devoted to enzymes, proteins that catalyze chemical reactions, enzyme structures, mechanisms of action and their roles within cells. Biochemistry also studies small signaling molecules, coenzymes, inhibitors, vitamins and hormones, which play roles in the life process. Biochemical experimentation, besides coopting the methods of classical chemistry, e.g., chromatography, adopted new techniques, e.g., X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, NMR, radioisotopes, and developed sophisticated microbial genetic tools, e.g., auxotroph mutants and their revertants, fermentation, etc. More recently, biochemistry embraced the 'big data' omics systems. Initial biochemical studies have been exclusively analytic: dissecting, purifying and examining individual components of a biological system; in exemplary words of Efraim Racker, (1913 –1991) "Don't waste clean thinking on dirty enzymes." Today, however, biochemistry is becoming more agglomerative and comprehensive, setting out to integrate and describe fully a particular biological system. The 'big data' metabolomics can define the complement of small molecules, e.g., in a soil or biofilm sample; proteomics can distinguish all the proteins comprising e.g., serum; metagenomics can identify all the genes in a complex environment e.g., the bovine rumen.

This Biochemistry Series will address both the current research on biomolecules, and the emerging trends with great promise.

## Meet the Series Editor

Miroslav Blumenberg, Ph.D., was born in Subotica and received his BSc in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He completed his Ph.D. at MIT in Organic Chemistry; he followed up his Ph.D. with two postdoctoral study periods at Stanford University. Since 1983, he has been a faculty member of the RO Perelman Department of Dermatology, NYU School of Medicine, where he is codirector of a training grant in cutaneous biology. Dr. Blumenberg's research is focused

on the epidermis, expression of keratin genes, transcription profiling, keratinocyte differentiation, inflammatory diseases and cancers, and most recently the effects of the microbiome on the skin. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and graduated numerous Ph.D. and postdoctoral students.

## Meet the Volume Editors

Mozaniel Santana de Oliveira graduated in Chemistry from the Federal University of Pará, Brazil. He obtained both a master's and Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology from the same university. He has 12 years of professional experience. From 2010 to 2014, he worked on the chemistry of natural products at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), and from 2014 to 2018, he worked in the Postgraduate Program in Food Science

and Technology at the Federal University of Pará, specifically with essential oils. Since 2020, he has been a researcher for the Institutional Training Program - PCI, at the institution Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, linked to the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações of Brazil (MCTI), with studies focused on extraction, characterization chemistry, and applications of essential oils in several industrial segments, among them the food industry. Specifically, Dr. Oliveira has experience in engineering, food science and technology, pharmacology and drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, ethnopharmacology and ethnobotany, phytochemistry, methods of extraction of bioactive compounds, biotechnology of natural products, and allelopathy to find new natural herbicides to control invasive plants. He also has experience in the area of essential oil extraction using supercritical technology and conventional methods. Since 2020, he has supervised and co-supervised master's and Ph.D. students in several graduate programs. Dr. Oliveira serves as a reviewer for thirty-one international scientific journals and is the academic editor of the journals *Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine*, *Journal of Food Quality*, *Molecules*, and *Open Chemistry*.

Eloisa Helena de Aguiar Andrade holds a degree in Pharmacy (1980), a qualification in Biochemistry (1982), a master's degree in Chemistry of Natural Products (1992), and a Ph.D. in Chemistry (2008) from the Federal University of Pará, Brazil. For. She is currently Associate Researcher II at the Botany Coordination of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and Adjunct Professor III at the Faculty of Chemistry at the Federal University of Pará. Professor of

the Graduate Programs in Chemistry, UFPA, PPG- in Biological C. - Tropical Botany, UFRA/MPEG and Graduate in Biodiversity Biotechnology - Bionorte Network. She is the coordinator of the Pole of the State of Pará, Graduate Program in Biodiversity and Biotechnology (PPG-BIONORTE/PA) of the Bionorte Network (2016-2020). Dr. Andrade is the author of more than 500 scientific contributions, including articles, event communications, book chapters, and books. She has experience in the field of chemistry, with an emphasis on the chemistry of natural products, working mainly on gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in volatile and fixed chemical constituents (derivatized).

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