Diseases and disorders

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.

Cells respond to environmental cues through a complex and dynamic network of signaling pathways that normally maintain a critical balance between cellular proliferation, differentiation, senescence, and death.

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.

Chemotherapy is one of the major treatment options for cancer patients; however, the efficacy of chemotherapeutic management of cancer is severely limited by multidrug resistance, in that cancer cells become simultaneously resistant to many structurally and mechanistically unrelated drugs.

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.

Prion Protein Protocols brings together a collection of current protocols in the field of mammalian prion disease research.

Public Health Microbiology: Methods and Protocols is focused on microorganisms that can present a hazard to human health in the course of everyday life.

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.

Since the first edition of Vaccinia Virus and Poxvirology: Methods and Protocols was published, a number of important events related to poxvirology have occurred, such as FDA approval of a culture-based live smallpox vaccine and the vaccination of large numbers of U.

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.

A cutting-edge collection of readily reproducible molecular techniques to better understand, classify, and treat lymphoma.

The tiny microRNAs (miRNAs) can have huge impacts on the regulation of a variety of genes and play crucial roles in the fundamental cellular processes.

Population studies and epidemiology facilitate the discovery of genetic and environmental determinants of cancer and the development of new approaches to cancer control and prevention, therefore they play a central role in the creation of health policies.

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.

Leading basic researchers and clinical scientists describe in detail a wide variety of established and cutting-edge techniques they have developed to study the lifecycle and biological properties of the human papillomavirus.

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.

In recent decades, infectious diseases, once believed to be fairly contained, have become a vital, resurgent field of research.

There is now a range of cytotoxic drugs that have considerable clinical usefulness in producing responses in tumors and even, in a small proportion of cases, cure.

The introduction of monoclonal antibodies revolutionized immunology.

Our understanding of the apoptotic pathway and its regulation has improved significantly in the last 10 years.

Target discovery is a field that has existed for several years but is so vibrant today because of the recent progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of many human diseases and the technical advances in target identification and validation.

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.

Reports of influenza-like illnesses date back to the Middle Ages, and outbreaks of influenza likely afflicted humans long before that.

With the significant medical role that human cytomegalovirus plays in human disease (from acute disease following primary infection, to chronic disease due to life-long viral persistence), the need to better understand human cytomegalovirus biology and pathogenesis is needed.

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.

According to the most recent clinical oncology data, one out of seven newly diagnosed malignancies worldwide result from infection and chronic inflammation in conjunction with cancer.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major causative agent, worldwide, of potentially life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia, which carry with them a high mortality rate and permanent physical and neurological issues for survivors.

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.

Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, there are still 400 million people, worldwide who are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV).

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.

Due in part to the selective nature of telomerase inhibition as an anticancer approach, the field has expanded considerably in the past decade.

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.

The Methods in Molecular Medicine series is intended as a resource for both novice and experienced investigators attempting to diversify their tech- logical base in research.

When I was ?

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.