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Recent progress on enzyme immobilisation, enzyme production, coenzyme regeneration and enzyme engineering has opened up fascinating new fields for the potential application of enzymes in a large range of different areas. As more progress in research and application of enzymes has been made the Iack of an up-to-date overview of enzyme molecular properties has become more apparent. Therefore, we started the development of an enzyme data in­ formation system as part of protein-design activities at GBF. The present book "Enzyme Handbook" represents the printed version of this data bank. ln future a computer searchable versionwill be also available. The enzymes in this Handbock are arranged according to the Enzyme Commission Iist of enzymes. Some 3000 "different" enzymes will be covered. Frequently enzymes with very different properties are included under the same EC number. Although we intend to give a representative overview on the characteristics and variability of each enzyme the Handbock is not a com­ pendium. The readerwill have to go to the primary Iiterature for more detailed information. Naturally it is not possible to cover all the numerous Iiterature references for each enzyme (for special enzymes up to 40000) if the data re­ presentation is tobe concise as is intended.