Cell Signaling Reactions

This book encompasses the exciting developments and challenges in the field of single-molecule kinetic analysis of cell signaling. This is a fast-moving and rapidly expanding research field. We believe firmly that this field promises to be one of the most significant biological areas of this century. Cell signaling is carried out by complicated reaction network of various species of biological macromolecules and single-molecule analyses have already demonstrated its power to unravel complex reaction dynamics in purified systems.§Most of the works have been published in the filed of single-molecule processes in cells focus on dynamic properties (translational movements of the centre of mass) of biological molecules. This book, however, we intend to contain as many kinetic analyses of cell signalling as possible. Although the single-molecule kinetic analysis of cellular systems is a young field compared with the analysis of single-molecule movements in cells, this type of analysis is important because it directly relates to the molecular functions that control cellular behaviour. Future single-molecule kinetic analysis will be largely directed towards cellular systems. We hope this book is interested in wide readers in molecular and cell biology as well as biophysics and biochemistry.