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Introduction
 One
of the primary issues in biochemistry is determination of structure of
biomolecules, because structure is so closely related to biological function.
For methodological reasons the main focus has been on crystal structures
using X-ray scattering in the past, but multidimensional NMR methods have
emerged as useful tools for studying biomolecules in solution. Little
is known about gas-phase structures of biomolecules for two reasons. First,
methods to generate biomolecules in the gas phase were not available until
recently, and second, the focus of the biochemical community is on solution
chemistry, since the chemistry in living organisms is predominantly occurring
in the condensed phase. However, gas phase chemistry has proven very useful
in the past to understand the fundamentals of such intrinsic properties
as acidities, basicities, and conformations. Consequently, it is fundamentally
important to investigate gas-phase structures of biomolecules in the absence
of solvation effects and other intermolecular interactions. As it is our
philosophy to start out with simple systems first, we did a fair amount
of research on amino acids and small peptides to build a basis for studying
more complex biomolecules such as proteins.
Several aspects of gas-phase amino-acid and peptide
ion systems have been investigated in the Bowers group:
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