Diseases and disorders

A collection of both well-established and cutting-edge methods for investigating breast cancer biology not only in the laboratory, but also in clinical settings.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent a promising therapeutic approach for cancer patients by combining the antigen-targeting specificity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with the cytotoxic potency of chemotherapeutic drugs.

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.

New and exciting biological functions are still being discovered for vitamin A derivatives, including the vast number of physiological activities of retinoids.

Cancer is a devastating disease that affects millions of people in the world.

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

A compendium of readily reproducible and novel methods to manipulate DNA viruses and characterize their varied biological properties.

Target Discovery and Validation Reviews and Protocols, Volumes 1 and 2 review the most progressive and current methods for drug target discovery and validation.

A collection of state-of-the-art molecular methods for studying antifungal resistance, for discovering and evaluating both new and existing antifungal drugs, and for understanding the host response and immunotherapy of such agents.

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.

Over the last few years, the methods for analyzing cancer-related genes on a molecular level have changed rapidly.

Recent advances in molecular and cellular biology techniques have significantly improved our ability to detect, monitor, model and study the underlying molecular basis and pathogenesis of leukemia, yet we are still in an early discovery stage and much more work is needed in order to develop better strategies to diagnose, classify and treat this biologically and clinically diverse disease.

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.

Over the past ten years, many powerful new techniques have been developed that have dramatically changed malaria research.

Due to the highly collaborative nature of investigators working in the field, we have rapidly advanced our understanding of Staphylococcus epidermidis and other staphylococci in the last two decades.

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

Adenovirus Methods and Protocols, Second Edition, now in two volumes, is an essential resource for adenovirus (Ad) researchers beginning in the field, and an inspirational starting point for researchers looking to branch into new areas of Ad study.

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

Sexually transmitted infections (STI) continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, both in developed industrial countries as well as in the developing world.

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.

A state-of-the art collection of readily reproducible laboratory methods for assessing chemosensitivity in vitro and in vivo, and for assessing the parameters that modulate chemosensitivity in individual tumors.

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.

With many recent advances, cancer cell culture research is more important than ever before.

In 2003, the word "e;coronavirus"e; spread across the globe, somewhat further than the virus that sparked the panic.

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.

Microtubules are essential components of the cytoskeleton, and play critical roles in a variety of cell processes, including cell shaping, intracellular tracking, cell division, and cell migration.

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.

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

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.

Legionnaires' disease is a severe form of pneumonia that can occur in epidemics of several hundred cases.

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

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.

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.

In Molecular Diagnostics for Melanoma: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers and clinicians in the field of melanoma provide updated information on biomarkers and assays for diagnosis, prognosis, and assays predicting response to treatment for routine testing.

Early detection of cancer at the cellular level, even before anatomic anomalies are visible, is critical to more efficacious and cost effective diagnosis and therapeutic advances.

For over forty years, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been scrutinized and studied, garnering much attention due to their broad therapeutic efficacy.

Cytogenetic studies of malignancy have become an essential tool in the clinical management of cancer patients.

Immunology has made significant progress in the past decade, driven forward by rapidly advancing technology and a renewed interest in the vast realm of innate immunity.

The epigenetic regulation plays an important role in normal development and maintenance of tissue specific genes expression in humans and the disturbance of these patterns lead to changes involved in tumor formation.

This work, Lung Cancer, Volume 2: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods and Reviews, in the Methods in Molecular Medicine series presents an overview of the current status of those methods useful in the diagnosis and tre- ment of lung cancer-both as it exists in the clinic and as it is being revoluti- ized in the laboratory.

Biomarkers are molecular indicators of a biological status and, as biochemical species, can be interrogated to evaluate disease status and therapeutic interventions.

Bacterial infections affect world health today as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.

Intracellular checkpoint controls constitute a network of signal transd- tion pathways that protect cells from external stresses and internal errors.

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.