Perspectives

Abstract

Blood is the most accessible of the body fluids and there is little doubt that this accounts for the quite spectacular progress in the field of blood biochemistry. It is also important to recognise that research into blood biochemistry has led to the discovery of a number of fundamental aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology. For example, the recognition and study of abnormal haemoglobins, together with investigations of their causes, has given much valuable information on both structure-function relationships in proteins and the expression of genetic information. In addition, the study of globin synthesis in cell-free preparations from reticulocytes has provided important information on the mechanism of protein biosynthesis in eukaryotes.