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PREFACE
This compendium has been created from a series of lecture notes developed
over the years since 1998, and handed out to the students as separate
documents or files on It’s Learning.
The notes and the compendium are motivated by the need to supplement the
Smidsrød textbook with more examples from current research on
biopolymers, especially polysaccharides, as well as giving the course a more
chemical and biological profile. My intention is to use the compendium as the
main document in my teaching, but the Smidsrød textbook is still required as it
offers a deeper and more detailed description of the biophysical chemistry.
The Smidsrød textbook, which itself is unique in its kind, is much based on the
classical textbook by C. Tanford (Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules,
Wiley, 1961), and therefore emphasizes the physical and theoretical aspects
more than the chemical and biological. Both books were written at a time
where the physical chemistry of macromolecules mainly focused on synthetic
polymers, and examples from the biopolymer science were comparatively
much less abundant. This situation has fortunately changed over the years.
Many examples on important polysaccharides used in this compendium stems
from research carried out by my colleagues and myself at NOBIPOL
(Norwegian Biopolymer Laboratory), an interdisciplinary, bottom-up type of
research group at NTNU.
I need to thank professor emeritus Olav Smidsrød for introducing and
developing the Biopolymer course at NTNU, and for establishing NOBIPOL as
a highly profiled, internationally recognized and active research group. I also
thank him for supervision from my time as his student in the area, and for all
stimulating scientific discussions over the years.
I also thank my current colleagues in NOBIPOL, in particular professors
Gudmund Skjåk-Bræk, Kjell M. Vårum, Kurt. I. Draget, Svein Valla and Bjørn
T. Stokke for valuable scientific input through publications and discussions.
The thanks are extended to all previous and current students, PhD
candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and young researchers associated with
NOBIPOL. Special thanks also to my colleague professor Alexander Dikiy for
allowing me to use his presentation on proteins in this compendium (Section
4.4)
Trondheim, August 2013
Bjørn E. Christensen