This text is suitable for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in chemistry and biochemistry studying amino acids and peptides. The authors concentrate on amino acids and peptides without detailed discussions of proteins, although the book gives all the essential background chemistry, including sequence determination, synthesis and spectroscopic methods, to enable the reader to appreciate protein behaviour at the molecular level. The approach is intended to encourage the reader to cross classical boundaries, as in the later chapters on the biological roles of amino acids and the design of peptide-based drugs. For example, there is a section on the enzyme-catalysed synthesis of peptides, with suitable examples, an area often neglected in texts describing peptide synthesis. This modern text will be of value in the amino acid, peptide and protein field, to advanced undergraduates, graduate students and research workers.

‘Any applied scientist who needs to know more about the underlying chemistry of amino acids and peptides need look no further than this concise little text … I wholeheartedly recommend it.’

Source: Food Chemistry

‘As a whole, the book can be recommended to students and newcomers to peptide chemistry.’

Source: Angewandte Chemie

‘… a useful adjunct to advanced undergraduate courses looking for a text.’

Source: European Peptide Society Newsletter