Cell Interactions in Differentiation is a collection of papers presented at the Sixth Sigrid Jusélius Foundation Symposium held in Helsinki, Finland, in August 1976. Contributors discuss cell interactions during differentiation, particularly referring to the problem of embryonic induction. They also consider how a cell becomes adjusted to the synchronized development of an entire multicellular organism, so as to express its genetic information at a strictly controlled time and place. This volume is organized into five sections encompassing 30 chapters and begins with an overview of embryonic cells and their two fundamental properties. Cells are not necessarily predetermined and can be experimentally diverted from their normal developmental pathway, and those within an embryonic organism require extrinsic messages to express their developmental capacities. The next chapters focus on early determinative events in embryogenesis, touching on topics such as the genetic aspects of cell type determination, interactions between embryonic cells during the early development of the mouse, and the differentiation of teratocarcinoma stem cells in vitro. The reader is then introduced to positional information and morphogenetic signals; the biological ""specificity"" of morphogenetic tissue interactions; and the molecular mechanisms underlying cell contact interactions. The remaining chapters explore some of the most important conceptual and methodological approaches to the problems of cell-cell recognition and the integration of cells into multicellular systems. This book will be of interest to scientists and investigators in developmental biology and related fields.

The continued debate regarding the stage at which the human embryo conceived in the laboratory should be placed in the mother, combined with recent developments in culture media formulations, have brought the role of the human blastocyst in ART back into the spotlight. ART and the Human Blastocyst presents the proceedings of the International Symposium on ART and the Human Blastocyst held from March 30- April 2, 2000 in Dana Point, California. This book brings to the forefront the main issues raised with the transfer of embryos at the blastocyst stage, including the reduction of high order multiple gestations and the role of the blastocyst culture and transfer in facilitating successful single embryo transfer. Sections include gamete quality and pregnancy outcome, physiology of the embryo, blastocyst development in culture, blastocyst transfer and fate, and implantation. More than 40 illustrations and 25 tables complement the text.

A comprehensive and self-contained introduction to Gaussian processes, which provide a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines. Gaussian processes (GPs) provide a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines. GPs have received increased attention in the machine-learning community over the past decade, and this book provides a long-needed systematic and unified treatment of theoretical and practical aspects of GPs in machine learning. The treatment is comprehensive and self-contained, targeted at researchers and students in machine learning and applied statistics. The book deals with the supervised-learning problem for both regression and classification, and includes detailed algorithms. A wide variety of covariance (kernel) functions are presented and their properties discussed. Model selection is discussed both from a Bayesian and a classical perspective. Many connections to other well-known techniques from machine learning and statistics are discussed, including support-vector machines, neural networks, splines, regularization networks, relevance vector machines and others. Theoretical issues including learning curves and the PAC-Bayesian framework are treated, and several approximation methods for learning with large datasets are discussed. The book contains illustrative examples and exercises, and code and datasets are available on the Web. Appendixes provide mathematical background and a discussion of Gaussian Markov processes.

Animal Biotechnology introduces applications of animal biotechnology and implications for human health and welfare. It begins with an introduction to animal cell cultures and genome sequencing analysis and provides readers with a review of available cell and molecular tools. Topics here include the use of transgenic animal models, tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and proteomics. The book then delivers in-depth examples of applications in human health and prospects for the future, including cytogenetics and molecular genetics, xenografts, and treatment of HIV and cancers. All this is complemented by a discussion of the ethical and safety considerations in the field.Animal biotechnology is a broad field encompassing the polarities of fundamental and applied research, including molecular modeling, gene manipulation, development of diagnostics and vaccines, and manipulation of tissue. Given the tools that are currently available and the translational potential for these studies, animal biotechnology has become one of the most essential subjects for those studying life sciences. - Highlights the latest biomedical applications of genetically modified and cloned animals with a focus on cancer and infectious diseases - Provides firsthand accounts of the use of biotechnology tools, including molecular markers, stem cells, and tissue engineering

Cancer was thought to originate from alterations in intercellular signaling that resulted in the transformation of cells, their uncontrolled proliferation and metastasis. There is now an increasing body of evidence demonstrating that the surrounding matrix and cell-matrix interactions are also major players in this process. Cells adhere and receive signals from various extracellular matrices via transmembrane receptors, the best known of which are the heterodimeric glycoproteins, integrins.