'Biotechnology in healthcare', edited by Gavin Brooks. Pp xii+228. Price £19.95. London: Pharmaceutical Press, 1998. ISBN 0 85369 372 2.
Well judged texts on scientific and technological progress are of great value to the many pharmacists and others with a basic science education who aspire to keep abreast of these developments without the benefit of hands-on experience. For people like us, this little book is a gem.
The editor Gavin Brooks has demonstrated that biotechnology can be described and explained in a way that the non-specialist can appreciate and enjoy without losing its scientific accuracy. The contributing authors write lucidly and with the authority that enables them to comment crisply on the current state of affairs and prospects for further developments.
The applications of biotechnology to health care embrace not only the manipulations of genes and the highly sensitive profiling of DNA and the exploitation of oligonucleotides as drugs but, additionally, the even more rapidly expanding use of proteins and peptides in the form of antibodies and other mediators involved in the immune system and the "factors" that influence cell growth, differentiation and death. All this is addressed in the context of the diagnosis and treatment of disease, with assessments of the latest scientific and technological advances that are still at the exploratory stage. Among the impressively large number of diseases considered, it is cancer that has attracted the greatest variety of novel biotechnological approaches in the search for improved treatments.
I thoroughly recommend this book to students, young and old, of the new technologies.
Reviewer - Michael Simmonds
Michael Simmonds is professor of neuropharmacology and director of undergraduate studies at the School of Pharmacy, University of London