Signal Transduction and Human Disease

Toren Finkel, J. Silvio Gutkind9780471020110, 0-471-02011-7

The past few years have witnessed rapid progress in the characterization of mechanisms that underlie the generation and processing of inter- and intracellular signals. While there have been significant corollary advances in the area of signaling in disease processes, there is as yet no single resource that connects these advances with an understanding of disease processes and applications for novel therapeutics. Collecting chapters from the leading experts in their respective fields, editors Toren Finkel and Silvio Gutkind deliver a much-needed introduction to signaling and a fruitful discussion of promising directions for future research. Signal Transduction and Human Disease capitalizes on the current emphasis on translational research and biological relevance in biotechnology and, conversely, the importance of molecular approaches for clinical research. Each chapter conveys the sense of a disease process, what it affects, how it presents, how common it is, and what the treatments are. Clinical descriptions are not exhaustive but rather serve as an outline regarding the disease s manifestations and current treatment options. Following this introduction, the authors present an in-depth discussion of one or two signal transduction pathways or biological processes relevant to the disease. The editors divide their study into five sections: Cardio-Pulmonary Disease Oncology Endocrinology Infectious Disease Allergy/Rheumatology Neurology/Psychiatry Biochemists, molecular and cell biologists, immunologists, pharmacologists, and clinical researchers, as well as graduate students in a variety of scientific disciplines, will find Signal Transduction and Human Disease to be an invaluable addition to the literature.