Biomedical Applications of Immobilized Enzymes and Proteins, Vol. I and II

In the last ten years great advances have been made in elucidating the properties of immobilized enzymes, which have already found practical applications in chemical analysis as well as in large scale industrial processes. The term "immobilized enzymes" embraces a variety of systems in which one or more enzymes are sequestered in gels or microcapsules, covalently bound or adsorbed to solid supports such as membranes, particles, and tubes or are simply crosslinked with each other or with another soluble macromolecule. In living systems most enzymes are bound to cellular membranes; consequently, immobilized enzymes can serve as models for the study of enzymic reactions in the heterogeneous cellular milieu. The potential usefulness of immobilized enzymes in biomedical applications has also been widely recognized. The two volumes of this book attempt to give an overview on what has been conceived and accomplished in this particular field. The first volume is divided into two parts: general introduction to enzyme immobilization methods and experimental applications of immobilized enzymes in therapy. The second volume deals with diagnostics and public health and eight chapters in the last part are entitled "Perspectives." This title, however, could apply to the. book at large and the present status of the field represented here. Particularly in the therapeutical applications of immobilized enzymes the progress has been slow. The prospects are, however, that some of the approaches described in this book soon will find employment in clinical practice. For the reader who is interested in biomedical applications of immobilized enzymes this book offers the only comprehensive treatment of the subject and serves as an invaluable source of ideas and references. The forty-one authors who contributed forty-seven chapters altogether are leaders in this particular field of endeavor. This reviewer admires their skills, faith, and imagination without which this wellproduced book under the editorship of Thomas Chang, who himself is an author or co-author of seven chapters, could not be possible.