Reshaping Life: Key Issues in Genetic Engineering

by G. J. V. Nossal , Ross L. Coppel

• ISBN13: 9780521524230
• ISBN10: 0521524237
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Reshaping Life is an authoritative yet easy-to-read description of modern molecular biology and genetics, and the ethical implications of genetic engineering. Now in its third edition, it has been fully revised and updated, taking advantage of a decade of progress in genetics and biotechnology. No other book straddles the scientific and the social dimensions of genetics as lucidly. It offers a concise working knowledge of DNA science and of those aspects of cell biology needed to understand such issues as animal cloning, genetically modified food, and gene therapy. It examines the debates on the sociological and ethical issues surrounding modern technology, laying out the issues for the reader, while urging a rational approach. Reshaping Life is well suited to general readers interested in science and medicine, as well as undergraduate and graduate students across a broad band of disciplines within the life sciences.

Author Biography

Professor Sir Gustav Nossal is the distinguished former director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne. In retirement, he is Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts of the Vaccines and Biologicals Programme of the World Health Organization, and Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Council of the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program. Ross Coppel is Professor of Microbiology at Monash University and Director of the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium. He is an internationally recognized researcher in molecular biology, particularly for work on malaria and primary biliary cirrhosis.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The genie is out of the bottle

2. The organization of life

3. The mechanics of gene transplantation

4. Genomes: the encyclopaedias of life

5. Factories for precious proteins

6. Genes as diagnostic probes

7. Gene therapy, cellular engineering and human cloning

8. Vaccines of the future

9. Genetically manipulated organisms

10. The DNA industry

11. Scientists playing God

12. Genetic engineering and public policy

13. Distant horizons

Appendix - Subcellular organelles

Glossary

Suggestions for further reading

Index.