Books in the Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology series

In recent years, a number of groundbreaking structural and mechanistic studies deepened our understanding of helicase mechanisms and established new approaches for their analyses.

Germ cells in sexually reproducing metazoa, through the germline lineage, are the route by which genetic material and cytoplasmic constituents are passed from one generation to the next in the continuum of life.

The book considers signaling events from the zygote embryo through to the blastocyst with relevant data from embryonic stem (ES) cells, including dialogue with the extracellular environment and with the maternal tract during the implantation process.

To develop clinically effective and safe strategies for fertility preservation, it is essential to know and understand the fundamentals of oocyte and ovarian biology at the molecular level.

Asthma is a chronic relapsing airways disease that represents a major public health problemworldwide.

Therapeutic Ultrasound

The book presents the latest developments in clinical medicine, particularly involved with pulmonary care and diseases.

This book presents advanced expression technologies for the production of protein complexes. Since complexes lie at the heart of modern biology, the expression, purification, and characterization of large amounts of high-quality protein complexes is crucial for the fields of biomedicine, biotechnology, and structural biology. From co-expression in E. coli, yeast, mammalian and insect cells to complex reconstitution from individual subunits, this book offers useful insights and guidance for successful protein expressionists.Across several sections readers will discover existing opportunities for the production of protein complexes in bacterial systems (including membrane proteins and cell-free co-expression), methylotrophic and non-methylotrophic yeasts, protozoa (Leishmania terantolae and Dictyostelium discoideum), baculovirus-infected insect cells, mammalian cells, plants and algae. Complex reconstitution from individually purified subunits or subcomplexes is discussed as a complementary strategy. A last section introduces briefly some of the biophysical and structural characterization techniques for macromolecular complexes using state-of-the-art solution scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance.This work is a guided tour over some of the most powerful and successful protein expression technologies, with a focus on co-expression and high-throughput applications. It is addressed to everyone interested in the production and characterization of macromolecular complexes, from university students who want an accessible description of the major co-expression systems to researchers in biomedicine and the life sciences seeking for an up-to-date survey of available technologies.

This book provides information on best practices and new thinking regarding the validation of alternative methods for toxicity testing.

Food and drug administration (FDA) approved drugs such as steroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), statins and metformin have been shown to modulate inflammatory pathways, but their long-term intake has been associated with numerous side effects.

In the beginning of this century, we are witnessing with great expectations the emergence of a new field of medicine related to the arrival of a new player on the scene: "stem cells" and their potential use in regenerative medicine.

The fields of rare diseases research and orphan products development continue to expand with more products in research and development status.

Recent studies have demonstrated that in addition to promoting tumor progression and protecting tumor cells from the spontaneous immune-mediated rejection and different forms of cancer therapeutics, tumor microenvironment can also be a target and mediator of both standard and newly-emerging forms of cancer therapeutics.

Organized in sections focusing on: basic science, mitochondrial dysfunction in cardiac disorders, in vascular disorders, in metabolic disorders, in kidney disease, therapeutic challenges and options, this essential volume fills imperative gaps in understanding and potentially treating several cardiovascular disorders.

The main goal of this book is to form a high-quality platform in which well-known and emerging pioneering basic, translational and clinical scientists can present their latest, exciting findings in the studies of redox signaling in the pulmonary vasculature.

As the title The Cell Biology of Stem Cells suggests, our book deals with multiple aspects of stem cell biology, ranging from their basic molecular characteristics to the in vivo stem cell trafficking of adult stem cells and the adult stem-cell niche, and ends with a visit to regeneration and cell fate reprogramming.

This multidisciplinary book covers all aspects of oxygen delivery to tissue, including blood flow and its regulation as well as oxygen metabolism as discussed at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) held in Australia in 2005.

Protein turnover, the balance between protein synthesis and protein degradation are carefully maintained in healthy cells.

One objective of NUTRA -SNACK S was to improve the nutritional and eating properties of ready-to-eat products and semi-prepared foodstuffs through better monitoring of the quality and safety of raw materials and the development of innovative processes along the production chain.

Cysteine proteases expressed by pathogenic organisms play key roles in virulence including host entry, feeding and suppression of host immune responses. Written by leading researchers from Europe, Australia and North America, this book is essential reading for students and professionals interested in human medicine and infectious disease research.

With the ever-increasing incidence of harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms, this monograph has added urgency and will be essential reading for all sorts of researchers, from neuroscientists to cancer research specialists.

This book provides a cutting-edge review of polyglutamine disorders. It primarily focuses on two main aspects: (1) the mechanisms underlying the pathologies¿ development and progression, and (2) the therapeutic strategies that are currently being explored to stop or delay disease progression. Polyglutamine (polyQ) disorders are a group of inherited neurodegenerative diseases with a fatal outcome that are caused by an abnormal expansion of a coding trinucleotide repeat (CAG), which is then translated in an abnormal protein with an elongated glutamine tract (Q). To date, nine polyQ disorders have been identified and described: dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA); Huntington¿s disease (HD); spinal¿bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA); and six spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 17).The genetic basis of polyQ disorders is well established and described, and despite important advances that have opened up the possibility of generating genetic models of the disease, the mechanisms that cause neuronal degeneration are still largely unknown and there is currently no treatment available for these disorders. Further, it is believed that the different polyQ may share some mechanisms and pathways contributing to neurodegeneration and disease progression.

Formation of transmembrane pores is a very effective way of killing cells. This book describes how several of the important pore forming toxin families achieve membrane bi- ing and which structural elements are used for formation of transmembrane pores.

Cancer patients have benefitted greatly from recent advances in the drugs, dose regimens, and combinations used to treat their primary tumor and for the treatment or prevention of spread of their disease. With the increase in survival rates, there has emerged a new awareness of these chronic adverse effects.

In his 1894 book, Materials for the Study of Variation, William Bateson coined the term Homoeosis with the following prose: The case of the modification of the antenna of an insect into a foot, of the eye of a Crustacean into an antenna, of a petal into a stamen, and the like, are examples of the same kind.