With contributions by more than 30 expert researchers, this handbook covers the whole spectrum from chemistry to cell biology and from theory to application. In so doing, it deals with a broad range of topics from the chemistry and biophysics of caged compounds to their application in time-resolved studies, comparing the properties of different caging groups. The authors describe in detail light-activation of proteins as well as nucleic acids, while a special section is devoted to multiphoton phototriggers.
A must-have for every biochemist, biophysicist and molecular biologist developing and working with these novel methods.

Foreword.
Preface.

List of Authors.

1 Photoremovable Protecting Groups Used for the Caging of Biomolecules.

1.1 2-Nitrobenzyl and 7-Nitroindoline Derivatives (John E. T. Corrie).

1.2 Coumarin-4-ylmethyl Phototriggers (Toshiaki Furuta).

1.3 p-Hydroxyphenacyl: a Photoremovable Protecting Group for Caging Bioactive Substrates (Richard S. Givens and Abraham L. Yousef).

1.4 Caging of ATP and Glutamate: a Comparative Analysis (Maurice Goeldner).

2 Mechanistic Overview of Phototriggers and Cage Release (Richard S. Givens, Mani B. Kotala, and Jong-Ill Lee).

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 Major Photoremovable Protecting Groups.

2.3 Conclusions.

Abbreviations.

References.

3 Caged Compounds and Solid-Phase Synthesis (Yoshiro Tatsu, Yasushi Shigeri, and Noboru Yumoto).

3.1 Introduction.

3.2 Solid-Phase Synthesis and Photolysis of Peptides.

3.3 Synthesis of Caged Peptides.

3.4 Synthesis of Other Photoactive Biomolecular Compounds.

3.5 Conclusions and Perspective.

References.

4 Control of Cellular Activity.

4.1 Photochemical Release of Second Messengers – Caged Cyclic Nucleotides (Volker Hagen, Klaus Benndorf, and U. Benjamin Kaupp).

4.2 Photochemical Release of Second Messengers – Caged Nitric Oxide (Christopher M. Pavlos, Hua Xu, and John P. Toscano).

4.3 Photochemical Release of Neurotransmitters – Transient Kinetic Investigations of Membrane-bound Receptors on the Surface of Cells in the Microsecond-to-Millisecond Time Region (George P. Hess).

4.4 Caged Neurotransmitters for Probing Neuronal Circuits, Neuronal Integration, and Synaptic Plasticity (Deda C. Gillespie, Gunsoo Kim, and Karl Kandler).

5 Photoregulation of Proteins.

5.1 Light-activated Proteins: An Overview (Sandra Loudwig and Hagan Bayley).

5.2 Photochemical Enzyme Regulation using Caged Enzyme Modulators (Ling Peng and Maurice Goeldner).

5.3 The Use of Caged Proteins in Cell-based Systems (John S. Condeelis and David S. Lawrence).

6 Photoremovable Protecting Groups in DNA Synthesis and Microarray Fabrication (Michael C. Pirrung and Vipul S. Rana).

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Photoremovable Groups used in Conventional Nucleic Acid Synthesis.

6.3 The Photolithographic Method for Microarray Fabrication.

6.4 The Future.

7 Analytical Time-resolved Studies using Photochemical Triggering Methods.

7.1 Time-resolved IR Spectroscopy with Caged Compounds: An Introduction (Andreas Barth).

7.2 IR Spectroscopy with Caged Compounds: Selected Applications (Vasanthi Jayaraman).

7.3 New Perspectives in Kinetic Protein Crystallography using Caged Compounds (Dominique Bourgeois and Martin Weik).

8 Multiphoton Phototriggers for Exploring Cell Physiology (Timothy M. Dore).

8.1 Introduction and History.

8.2 Theory.

8.3 The Two-photon Action Cross-section, δ_u.

8.4 Chromophores for Two-photon Release of Small Organic Ligands or Metal Ions.

8.5 Applications.

8.6 Conclusion.

9 New Challenges.

9.1 Laser-Induced T-Jump Method: A Non-conventional Photoreleasing Approach to Study Protein Folding (Yongjin Zhu, Ting Wang, and Feng Gai).

9.2 Early Kinetic Events in Protein Folding: The Development and Applications of Caged Peptides (Sunney I. Chan, Joseph J.-T. Huang, Randy W. Larsen, Ronald S. Rock, and Kirk C. Hansen).

9.3 Photocontrol of RNA Processing (Steven G. Chaulk, Oliver A. Kent, and Andrew M. MacMillan).

9.4 Light Reversible Suppression of DNA Bioactivity with Cage Compounds (W. Todd Monroe and Frederick R. Haselton).

9.5 Photoactivated Gene Expression through Small Molecule Inducers (Sidney B. Cambridge).

Subject Index.