Ciba Foundation Symposium on the Chemistry and Biology of Purines.

This book documents the formal papers and ensuing discussions at the Ciba Foundation Symposium held in London in May, 1956. These deliberations about purine chemistry and metabolism appear to have been an outgrowth of an earlier and successful Ciba Symposium devoted to a related topic, the pteridines. That the study of the chemistry and metabolism of purines is extremely active, even competitive, is seen by the depth and scope of the work, reported from governmental, educational, and industrial laboratories alike. Almost half of the papers are probably outside the interest of all but the organic chemist. Nonetheless they are important for pointing the way toward the synthesis of many other purine analogues of biochemical or therapeutic interest. Certain details presented at this symposium, particularly the contribution by G. R. Greenberg, of Western Reserve, concerning the role of folic acid, are sharpening the picture of purine biosynthesis. The cytotoxic purines were