Allan M. Sinclair

This is an introductory text intended to give the non-specialist a comprehensive insight into the science of biotransformations. The book traces the history of biotransformations, clearly spells out the pros and cons of conducting enzyme-mediated versus whole-cell bioconversions, and gives a variety of examples wherein the bio-reaction is a key element in a reaction sequence leading from cheap starting materials to valuable end products.

In these notes the abstract theory of analytic one-parameter semigroups in Banach algebras is discussed, with the Gaussian, Poisson and fractional integral semigroups in convolution Banach algebras serving as motivating examples. Such semigroups are constructed in a Banach algebra with a bounded approximate identity. Growth restrictions on the semigroup are linked to the structure of the underlying Banach algebra. The Hille-Yosida Theorem and a result of J. Esterle's on the nilpotency of semigroups are proved in detail. The lecture notes are an expanded version of lectures given by the author at the University of Edinburgh in 1980 and can be used as a text for a graduate course in functional analysis.

Some of the results on automatic continuity of intertwining operators and homomorphisms that were obtained between 1960 and 1973 are here collected together to provide a detailed discussion of the subject. The book will be appreciated by graduate students of functional analysis who already have a good foundation in this and in the theory of Banach algebras.