Prentice-Hall Publishing, a subsidiary of Pearson Education, has announced the publication of a new textbook authored by Dr. Rodney Boyer, who is the Drs. Edward and Elizabeth Hofma Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Hope College.
The new book, "Biochemistry Laboratory: Modern Theory and Techniques," second edition, is designed for use in undergraduate biochemistry and molecular biology teaching and research laboratories. The book focuses on detailed descriptions of modern techniques in experimental biochemistry and discusses the theory behind important techniques. The extensive range of techniques includes computer internet biochemical databases, chromatography, electrophoresis, spectroscopy, measurements of ligand-binding interactions, and recombinant DNA procedures such as molecular cloning and polymerase chain reaction. It is expected that students will use the book as a supplement and guide to their laboratory procedures.
The book will have a companion website with information for instructors on how to design and teach a biochemistry/molecular biology lab course. The highlight of the website is a listing of more than 250 experimental projects in all areas of biochemistry and molecular biology and appropriate for use at the undergraduate level. The list of experiments on the website will be updated on a periodic basis.
Boyer served on the Hope faculty for 26 years, from 1974 until retiring in 2000, teaching, conducting research and writing biochemistry. He was also chairperson of the department for six years.
He earned his B.A. in chemistry at Westmar College (Iowa) and his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at ColoradoStateUniversity. He joined the Hope chemistry faculty after three years as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with M.J. Coon in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School.
While at Hope, he directed the work of more than 75 undergraduate students in research supported by the NIH, NSF, Dreyfus Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Petroleum Research Fund (ACS). With his students, he published numerous journal articles on the storage of iron in the protein ferritin, and in biochemical education. He spent a sabbatical year as an American Cancer Society Scholar in the lab of Nobel laureate Tom Cech at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Boyer is also the author of "Modern Experimental Biochemistry" (third edition, 2000, Benjamin-Cummings) and "Concepts in Biochemistry" (third edition, 2006, John Wiley & Sons), and serves as an associate editor for the journal "Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education" (BAMBED). He is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and a former member of its Education and Professional Development Committee that recently designed the undergraduate biochemistry degree recommended by the ASBMB. He now resides in Bozeman, Mont., where he continues to write and consult in biochemical education.