Immunology

Driven by methodological success in identifying reliable lineage markers, regulatory T cells have quickly been recognized as the most numerous subset of immune regulators in the body with critical functions in a wide array of immune responses.

Virus-Host Interactions: Methods and Protocols covers various aspects of virological research, such as biochemical approaches, including molecular interactions and regulatory mechanisms on the protein as well as the RNA level with a strong focus on the manifold possibilities to study protein-protein interactions, as well as cell biological and immunological methodologies.

In this first book dedicated entirely to the ELISPOT, a critical enzyme-linked immunospot assay used widely in biomedical research, recognized experts with first-hand experience detail how to design, perform, and analyze these assays.

Monoclonal Antibodies: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition expands upon the previous edition with current, detailed modern approaches to isolate and characterize monoclonal antibodies against carefully selected epitopes.

Drug delivery systems (DDS) are an important component of drug development and therapeutics.

Many questions remain unresolved as researchers continue to characterize and define the nature of normal immune homeostasis and determine how these processes are dysregulated in immunodeficiency, as well as in autoimmune and lymphoproliferative disorders.

The HLA molecules are important regulators of the immune response through mediating antigen presentation and interaction between key immune mediating cells.

In the last decade, a large number of major discoveries have shed light on the molecular mechanisms of lymphocyte migration and the anatomy of immune responses.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has developed rapidly in the last four decades.

The purpose of T Cell Protocols: Development and Activation is to c- lect a series of protocols, particularly those that have been developed within the past few years, to help investigators master new techniques (or improve existing ones) for the study of T-cell Biology.

Neutrophil Methods and Protocols provides a concise set of protocols for assessing basic neutrophil functions, investigating specialized areas in neutrophil research, and completing step-by-step diagnostic assays of common neutrophil disorders.

Inflammasomes have a seemingly simple architecture.

The action of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), ranging from direct killing of invading pathogens to immune response modulation and other complex biological responses, has stimulated research and clinical interest for more than two decades, but the area is still burgeoning due to emerging discoveries in the functions, roles, and regulation of AMPs, thus making the study of antimicrobial peptides a multi-disciplinary and rapidly evolving field.

Immunoinformatics: Predicting Immunogenicity In Silico is a primer for researchers interested in this emerging and exciting technology and provides examples in the major areas within the field of immunoinformatics.

Recent outbreaks of swine influenza and avian influenza, along with the remaining and in some cases expanding threats from HIV, dengue virus, and the viruses causing hepatitis, have reinforced the need for rapid, accurate and cost-effective diagnosis of viral disease.

The introduction of monoclonal antibodies revolutionized immunology.

Continued refinement of wide-spread access to transgenic technology has allowed for new animal models have been developed that exhibit features of autoimmune disease have been developed that exhibit features of autoimmune disease.

Leading clinicians and scientists in solid organ transplantation review the current status of the field and describe cutting-edge techniques for detecting the immune response to the allografted organ.

More than ever, antibodies are being recognized as a major drug modality in a variety of diseases, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, or even neurodegenerative disorders.

Enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) has been known for some time as a unique state-of-the-art technique for studying the cytokine-secreting activity of immune system cells, and it appears to be one of the fast growing applications in biomedical research, becoming an indispensable tool in vaccine development, HIV research, transplantation studies, and cancer and allergy research.

In recent years, the critical role of microRNAs has been revealed within the biology of cells that constitute the immune system.

As the research has continued, it has become increasingly clear that natural killer (NK) cells are critical sentinels of the innate immune response, playing important roles in protecting the body from numerous pathogens and cancer in addition to contributing to normal pregnancy and impacting the outcomes of transplantation.

Glycovirology Protocols reviews the increasing importance of glycosylation to the field of virology, as well as virus replication.

"e;Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.

This book is a collection of protocols, to provide novel techniques for the study of the biology of T lymphocytes.

There have been very few developments that markedly affect the need to greatly revise the text from the last version of this book.

Since its introduction almost 20 years ago, phage display technology has revolutionized approaches to the analysis of biomedical problems, quickly impacting the fields of  immunology, cell biology, biotechnology, pharmacology, and drug discovery.

Immunologists today are interested in all of the diverse cell-types involved in host defense and have a deeper appreciation of the importance of innate immune mechanisms as a first line of protection against pathogens.

Since the publication of the popular first edition, genomic methods have become more accessible, allowing antibiotic researchers to probe not only the sequence of antibiotic resistance determinants but the mechanism whereby they are expressed and regulated.

In light of the critical contributions of macrophages and dendritic cells to diverse inflammatory diseases and to immunity and host defense, state-of-the-art approaches to the investigation of their behavior are essential.

From the early days when RNA interference was a strange artifact in worms to the 2006 Noble Prize received by Fire and Mello and the current clinical trials, the field of RNA interference has grown at a breakneck pace.

Monoclonal Antibodies: Methods and Protocols examines a collection of state-of-the-art methods that employ monoclonal antibodies in a clinical setting with opening chapters focusing on the gold standard method for generating mouse monoclonal antibodies through hybridoma technology, future methods for engineering recombinant and humanized antibodies, methods for engineering soluble Fc fusion protein, and the use of antibodies and flow cytometry in the quantification of cell signaling proteins.

Antibodies tagged with fuorescent markers have been used in histochemistry for over 50 years.

The rapidly growing field of antibody research is the result of many advancing technologies allowing current developments to take advantage of molecular engineering to create tailor-made antibodies.

A continuously evolving technique, immunotherapy for the treatment of cancers now incorporates the use of immune cells infused during bone marrow transplants as well as approaches like cell and gene therapy, while stem cell-based therapies, tissue engineering, and targeting have also contributed to the latest successes in pre-clinical immunotherapy studies.

A compendium of optimized methods to measure type I interferon efficacy as an antiproliferative or an antiviral agent.

In the early 1990s, almost 200 yr after Edward Jenner demonstrated the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine, a new paradigm for vaccination emerged.

A cutting-edge collection of readily reproducible techniques for the isolation, culture, and study of activation and signaling in human mast cells.

Cell Cycle Control and Dysregulation Protocols focuses on emerging methodologies for studying the cell cycle, kinases, and kinase inhibitors.

Cytokines in Human Health: Immunotoxicology, Pathology, and Therapeutic Applications explores the role of cytokines in immunotoxicology and human health using a variety of complex methods, from basic research to highly applied therapeutic applications.

Over the last half century, a dramatic increase in allergic diseases has been observed throughout industrialized nations, which has resulted in significant worldwide socio-economic challenges.

Immunoelectron microscopy is a key technique that bridges the information gap between biochemistry, molecular biology, and ultrastructural studies placing macromolecular functions within a cellular context.

After decades of research in clinical transplantation, new techniques have been developed that permit a further understanding of the immune mechanisms underlying immune recognition of allografts and a more accurate and thorough evaluation of compatibility between donors and recipients.

Spanning from discoveries in fundamental immunology to industrial and commercial concerns, the study of vaccine adjuvants has developed into an exciting area of work with great, vital potential in innovating techniques in which adjuvants may steer the immune system towards the responses required by unmet vaccination needs.

A crisis is developing in the treatment of infectious diseases, with microorganisms frequently showing resistance to currently prescribed antibiotics.

Despite major advances in HIV treatment, many areas require more study, in order to create efficacious, potent antiretrovirals that can suppress viral load completely and durably without toxic side effects, to define unknown drug targets and fine-tune known targets, and to better understand the interplay between viral and host factors.

Given the vital importance of immune system research, the gathering of clear, consistent, and informative protocols involving the study of dendritic cells is paramount.

Given the versatile utility of the determinination of epitopes, beneficial to a wide variety of scientists from immunologists to structural biologists to biotechnologists, the need for a thorough, state-of-the-art collection of experimental protocols is clear.

For researchers today, the avidin-biotin interaction is among the most widely exploited among biomedical scientists.