Monocytes represent one of the major types of white blood cells in man which prevent infection by ingesting and killing invading pathogens and by releasing factors which stimulate and regulate lymphocytes. Monocytes "purify" the blood, removing immune complexes, mediating inflammatory responses, and initiating tissue repair. Human Monocytes represents an up-to-date, definitive account of this important cell. It covers the cells biochemical, immunological, and inflammatory functionsand its role in many diseases, including asthma, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and AIDS.

“Infogest” (Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process) is an EU COST action/network in the domain of Food and Agriculture that will last for 4 years from April 4, 2011. Infogest aims at building an open international network of institutes undertaking multidisciplinary basic research on food digestion gathering scientists from different origins (food scientists, gut physiologists, nutritionists...). The network gathers 70 partners from academia, corresponding to a total of 29 countries. The three main scientific goals are: Identify the beneficial food components released in the gut during digestion; Support the effect of beneficial food components on human health; Promote harmonization of currently used digestion models Infogest meetings highlighted the need for a publication that would provide researchers with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of respective in vitro and ex vivo assays to evaluate the effects of foods and food bioactives on health. Such assays are particularly important in situations where a large number of foods/bioactives need to be screened rapidly and in a cost effective manner in order to ultimately identify lead foods/bioactives that can be the subject of in vivo assays. The book is an asset to researchers wishing to study the health benefits of their foods and food bioactives of interest and highlights which in vitro/ex vivo assays are of greatest relevance to their goals, what sort of outputs/data can be generated and, as noted above, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various assays. It is also an important resource for undergraduate students in the ‘food and health’ arena.

The Janeway's Immunobiology CD-ROM, Immunobiology Interactive, is included with each book, and can be purchased separately. It contains animations and videos with voiceover narration, as well as the figures from the text for presentation purposes.

Mononuclear phagocytes, which include macrophages, monocytes and their precursor cells, are the most important cells in the host defence against micro-organisms and tumor cells. During the last twenty-five years research on the biology of mononuclear phagocytes has increased tremendously. This motivated Professor R. van Furth to organize five international conferences on this subject in Leiden, the Netherlands. The edited proceedings of these meethings were published: in 1970 Mononuclear Phagocytes; in 1975 Mononuclear Phagocytes in Immunity, Infections and Pathology; in 1980 Mononuclear Phagocytes -- Functional Aspects; and in 1985 Mononuclear Phagocytes -- Characteristics, Physiology and Function. Reviews of these volumes, published in international journals, praised them as the most up-to-date state of the art publications. The publication of 1991 includes 88 chapters written by more than 200 authors.