Product Description
This work comprises a narrative account of research on the hepatitis B virus (and related subjects) and selected reprints from the laboratory of Nobel laureate Baruch S. Blumberg and his colleagues. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the ten most common deadly infectious diseases and is responsible for 1.1 million deaths a year worldwide. Research in the laboratory of Baruch S. Blumberg resulted in the discovery of HBV and the invention of the vaccine which protects one against it. The research began as an apparently esoteric study of human biochemical and immunologic variation. This required field-work in Africa, the Arctic, the Pacific, the Americas, and in many other locations and populations. The overall goal was to identify inherited biological differences which were related to differing responses to disease-causing agents. The virus was discovered using the blood of an infected person who had developed the antibody, to detect the virus present in another infected person who had become a carrier of the virus. Screening of blood donors led to the near-elimination of post-transfusion hepatitis B. ... Read more

Product Description
About 375 million people are infected with the hepatitis B virus. It has killed more people than AIDS and also causes millions of cases of liver cancer. The discovery of this deadly virus and the vaccine against it--a vaccine that is sharply decreasing the infection rate worldwide and is probably the first effective cancer vaccine--was one of the great triumphs of twentieth-century medicine. And it almost didn't happen.

With wit and insight, this scientific memoir and story of discovery describes how Baruch Blumberg and a team of researchers found a virus they were not looking for and created a vaccine for a disease they previously knew little about--work that took the author around the world and won him the Nobel Prize.

Blumberg and his collaborators were investigating relationships between gene distribution and disease susceptibility, research that was yielding interesting data but no real breakthroughs. Many viewed their work as more field trip than science. But, through decades of hard work and investigative twists and turns, their pursuit led to the hepatitis B antigen, the elusive virus itself, and, ultimately, the vaccine. As he takes the reader through the detective work that culminated in his incredible discovery, the author recounts with immediacy exciting moments in the lab and in the field--from a hair-raising flight to Africa to an unpleasant encounter with Alaskan sled dogs.

The hepatitis B story is more than a fascinating chronicle of a major discovery. What Blumberg followed to the virus was a trail of remarkable "accidents" that happen when scientists seek answers to interesting questions. Those events, combined with the investigator's determined persistence, resulted in studies that generated a pharmaceutical industry, have far-flung public-health applications, and saved millions of lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

great book-how hepatitis b virus discovered
Very interesting, exciting journey leads to discovery of hepatitis B virus, its test and vaccine.
Must read for any researcher ... Read more

Product Description
`Gene Cartels is a valuable book for the scientist providing, in an elegantly scholarly style, deep insights into the origins, history, evolution and current status of patent systems. It also discloses features that can lead, in effect, to a misuse of power.'
- From the foreword by Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, US and Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1976

Starting with the 13th century, this book explores how patents have been used as an economic protectionist tool, developing and evolving to the point where thousands of patents have been ultimately granted not over inventions, but over isolated or purified biological materials. DNA, invented by no man and once thought to be `free to all men and reserved exclusively to none', has become cartelised in the hands of multinational corporations. The author questions whether the continuing grant of patents can be justified when they are now used to suppress, rather than promote, research and development in the life sciences.

Luigi Palombi demonstrates that patents are about inventions and not isolated biological materials, which consequently have no bona fide purpose in the innovations of biotechnological science. This book will be important reading for anyone who has an interest in the role that patents have played in economic development - particularly historians, economists and scientists. It will also be of great interest to law academics, lawyers, judges and policymakers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best work on the law of gene patenting
Dr. Palombi's work is a comprehensive examination of the law surrounding the complex social and scientific issue of gene patents.He delves into not only the current practice, and its legal and policy justifications, but the entire history of the law surrounding patents on life-forms and natural products.He tears apart the practice, based on his detailed legal analysis, showing that it is not only illogical, but unlawful.In particular, he decimates the myth that cDNA is somehow something "new" or "inventive," and illustrates how the existing case law cannot seriously support the patenting of supposedly "isolated and purified" genes.His legal arguments ought to support current efforts to overturn the practice, either through legislative action, or through lawsuits like that recently brought against Myriad, Inc., for its patent on the BRCA1 and 2 "breast cancer" genes.This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the debate, as well as those whose lives might very well depend on the debate, including anyone with genetic predispositions to diseases, or with monogenic genetic diseases which have or may already be patented. ... Read more

Product Description
229 pages. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from American Decades: Primary Sources, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1959 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.American Decades Primary Sources provides fresh insight into the decade's most important events, people, and issues. Entries representing a diversity of views that provide insight into the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decade. Also included are concise contextual information, notes about the author and further resources. American Decades Primary Sources includes chapters on the arts, medicine and health, media, education, world events, religion, government and politics, lifestyles and social trends, law and justice, religion, business and the economy, and sports. Included to provide unique perspectives and a wealth of understanding are first hand accounts that include oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoonsand recipes. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from American Decades: Primary Sources, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1111 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.American Decades Primary Sources provides fresh insight into the decade's most important events, people, and issues. Entries representing a diversity of views that provide insight into the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decade. Also included are concise contextual information, notes about the author and further resources. American Decades Primary Sources includes chapters on the arts, medicine and health, media, education, world events, religion, government and politics, lifestyles and social trends, law and justice, religion, business and the economy, and sports. Included to provide unique perspectives and a wealth of understanding are first hand accounts that include oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoonsand recipes. ... Read more