Fundamentals of Medicinal Chemistry By Gareth Thomas. Wiley,Chichester 2003.302 pp. , soft cover $ 30.00.–ISBN 0-470-84307-1 A number of aspects of synthetic, bioor- ganic and physical organic chemistry can be illustratedwith relevantexamples from the realm ofmedicinalchemistry. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical indus- try is a major employer of chemists and biochemists. Consequently, a seriesof medicinal chemistry lectures often forms a component of chemistry programmes. This book is aimed at second and third year undergraduates taking such a course against a background of chemis- try or biochemistry. Although this book may invite comparison with the author';s earlier Medicinal Chemistry, it is aimed at a differentmarket.The book assumes only a level of chemical knowledge that would be obtained from the first year of a chemistry course. It makes very few de- mandson biologicalknowledge and it includes in the appendices some essen- tialdetails of cellular structure and func- tion. The opening two chapters of the book set the subjectin the context of bio- organic chemistry and aim to provide an overview of medicinal chemistry in order to develop a framework for the succeed- ing chapters. There is a discussion of the classification of drugs,their absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. The next four chaptersare concerned with the factors that are involved in the design of a drug, the development of structure±activity relationshipsand newer combinatorial methods of synthe- sis. The remaining chaptersexemplify drug action atparticulartargets,phar- macokinetics and drug metabolism, with the finalchapters being concerned with the synthesis and production of a drug. Each chapter is accompanied by ques- tions covering the major points. The an- swers are given at the end of the book, where there is also guidance for further reading. The book is nicely presented, and the chapters contain clear headings forthe varioussections.Keywordsare set in bold.However, there are a few errors in the formulae. It is a pity thatthe book did not discuss more of the aetiology of a disease and then the various strategies that have been developed to combat it. Nevertheless, this is an interesting and useful book that fulfils its purpose in providing a foundation of medicinal chemistry. Jim Hanson University of Sussex (UK) DOI: 10.1002/cbic.200300160 Methods and Principles in Medicinal Chemistry Vol. 21: Molecular Biology in Medicinal Chemistry Edited by Theodor Dingermann, Dieter Steinhilber and Gerd Folkers. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2004. 413 pp. , hard cover E 149.00.–ISBN 3-527-30431-2 The elucidation of the human genome and the huge number of targetsis a true challenge forme- dicinal chemistry. The criteria for target selection and the drugabili- ty of the targets are now even more im- portant.What does the target do within cells and how do you monitorit in a complex system? Where to start? What to synthesizeand how? All this in a single book titled Molecular Biologyin Medicinal Chemistry ? The 14 chapters by just as many au- thors or teamsare grouped into four sections :moleculartargets ;synthesis ; analysis ; and kinetics,metabolism, and toxicology.This order reflectsthe re- search process in pharmaceutical indus- try.The firstchapterlists cellular assays in drug discovery and addresses the ex- perienced reader. This is a particularly crucialtask for the authors.They rush through a general review and slow down a little to focus on assay tech- nologies; such as FRET, BRET,FLIPR, AlphaScreen¦, reporter genes, and enzyme fragment complementation. The descriptionsare very brief ( 1 = 2 ±1 page per assay),and detailed information is given only occasionally for GPCRs,ion channels,and reporter-gene assays for transmembrane receptors. Some assays are summarized in nice flow charts, but the physicochemical background ofthe assays remains in a black box for now (mostof them willbe discussed in fol- lowing chapters). The opportunity to dis- cussfalse positivesand negativeswas missed.Onlyreporter-geneassaysare treated at the necessarydepth. The second chapter : gene knockout models, deals with the manipulation of embryon- ic stems cells to generateknockout mouse models. The descriptions and fig- ures are very instructive ; the drug resist- ance/sensitivity markers Neomycine/Gan- ciclovir are well explained, so is the gen- eration ofblastocysts and the breeding pattern. The ten pages for the novice are followed by twelve pages on conditional knockoutsusing LoxP/CRE, the tetracy- cline-responsive system, transgenic mice, Drosophilaand finally the morpholino oligos in Zebra fish embryos. Two con- cise chapters follow on GPCRs: reporter- gene assaysand the ligand hunt for orphan GPCRs. FLIPR and Ca 2 + -mediated signaling are pulled out of the black box now.The rathersmallPart IIis devoted Fundamentally Medicinal ChemBioChem 2004, 5,1153 ± 1156 www.chembiochem.org ¹ 2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,Weinheim 1153