Book excerpt: Advances in Protein and Peptide Sciences is a book series focused on leading-edge research on the structure, physical properties, and functions of proteins and peptides. The series presents highly cited contributions first published in the journal Current Protein and Peptide Science. Authors of these contributions have updated their work with new experimental data and references following their initial research. Each volume highlights a number of important topics in current research in the field of protein and peptide chemistry and molecular biology, including membrane proteins and their interactions with ligands, computational methods, and proteins in disease and biotechnology.