Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment reviews advances made during the last 10-15 years in fields such as developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. It describes a novel approach for how these advances might be used in combination with existing methodologies to further the understanding of mechanisms of developmental toxicity, to improve the assessment of chemicals for their ability to cause developmental toxicity, and to improve risk assessment for developmental defects. For example, based on the recent advances, even the smallest, simplest laboratory animals such as the fruit fly, roundworm, and zebrafish might be able to serve as developmental toxicological models for human biological systems. Use of such organisms might allow for rapid and inexpensive testing of large numbers of chemicals for their potential to cause developmental toxicity; presently, there are little or no developmental toxicity data available for the majority of natural and manufactured chemicals in use. This new approach to developmental toxicology and risk assessment will require simultaneous research on several fronts by experts from multiple scientific disciplines, including developmental toxicologists, developmental biologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians.

Reprogramming the Genome: Applications of CRISPR-Cas in Non-mammalian Systems Part B, represents the collation of chapters written by eminent scientists worldwide. CRISPR-Cas9 system is an RNA-mediated immune system of bacteria and archaea that protects from bacteriophage infections. It is one of the revolutionized technologies to uplift biology to the next stages. It is a simple, rapid, precise, and cost-effective tool for genome editing and regulation of a wide range of organisms. It has gained scientific and public attention worldwide. This volume mainly covers insect cell line, protozoans, zebrafish, drosophila, CRISPRi, patents as well as technology transfer, and many more. This book is a key source of information available in a single volume. This book will be useful for not only beginners in genome engineering, but also students, researchers, scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in harnessing the potential of reprogramming of the genomes in several areas. - Offers basic understanding and a clear picture of genome editing CRISPR-Cas systems in different organisms - Explains how to create an animal model for disease diagnosis/research and reprogram CRISPR for insect cell line, protozoans, zebrafish, drosophila, and many more - Discusses the advances, patents, applications, challenges and opportunities in CRISPR-Cas9 systems in basic sciences, biomedicine, molecular biology and many more

This textbook introduces to the fundamentals and applications of insect biotechnology in a concise manner. Global economically important insects such as silkworm, lac or honey bee are in the focus of this text. The book attempts to address all of the latest developments in this growing field such as application of metagenomics and proteomics in mining for genes and enzymes that could be beneficial in diverse industrial and biomedical applications. Further, insects have been established as suitable tool for the production of transgenic products which is discussed in one dedicated chapter. The book targets students and researchers in molecular biology, biotechnology or entomology who want to get familiar with the emerging field of insect biotechnology.

Most biological pathways, physical and neurological properties are highly conserved between humans and Drosophila and nearly 75% of human disease-causing genes have a functional homologue in Drosophila. This volume provides recent advances in Drosophila models for various human diseases, with each chapter providing a review of studies involving Drosophila models, as well as detailed protocols commonly used in laboratories. Starting with a review of Drosophila’s value as a highly tractable model organism for studying human diseases, subsequent chapters present Drosophila models for specific human diseases. The book provides a useful resource for all scientists who are starting to use the Drosophila model in their studies, and for researchers working in the pharmaceutical industry and using new screening models to develop new medicines for various diseases.