At the forefront of life sciences today is the emerging discipline of chembiomolecular science. This new term describes the integration of the frontier fields of chemical biology, chemistry, and pharmacology. Chembiomolecular science aims to elucidate new biological mechanisms as potential drug targets and enhance the creation of new drug therapies. This book comprises the proceedings of the Uehara Memorial Foundation Symposium 2011, which focused on the most recent advances in chembiomolecular science made by leading experts in the field. The book is divided into three main topics. The first is the chemical approach to understanding complex biological systems on a molecular level using chemical compounds as a probe. The second describes the biological approach used to develop new lead drug compounds. The third focuses on the biological system that serves as the potential drug target, the beginning step in the process of developing new drugs. Replete with the latest research, the book will draw the attention of all scientists interested in the synergies between chemistry and biology to elucidate life on a molecular level and to promote drug discovery. Ultimately, the book helps promote the understanding of biological functions at the molecular level and create new pharmaceuticals that can contribute to improving human health.

In this book, the progress during the last ten years is reviewed and future plans outlined to realize and establish the concept of design in the biological sciences.

Design is a leading concept as well as the principal motivation for the creation of artificial systems. A successful design generally requires that the structures and functions of the elements that constitute the system as well as the principles that determine how the elements cooperate together to create function be fully understood. These requirements have not been satisfied within the fields of biotechnology and medicine. Compared to the recent emergence of artificial systems, living organisms acquired their present day structures and functions through evolution over three to four billion years. Despite the fact that the design of living organisms is recorded in the DNA sequence, our understanding of the structures and functions of the elements that constitute living organisms is very limited.

To fulfill the requirements, the following approaches were initiated under a ten-year project entitled "Biodesign Research." Firstly, we tried to isolate and characterize the functional elements that constitute the organelles of various organisms. Secondly, we tried to reconstitute systems that reproduce biological functions "in vitro" from individual elements in order to understand how the elements cooperate together to yield a function. Thirdly, we attempted to resolve biological structures at various resolutions ranging from the atomic to the cellular level to further our knowledge about the fundamental principles that various functions at the molecular level and to design artificial systems.