Examines the post-mortem journeys of bodies, body-parts, organs, and brains in modern British medical research. This title is also available as Open Access.

The ways in which we can better understand cancer, HIV, and other autoimmune diseases through clinical immunology are of great interest to practitioners from the student level to the advanced PhD. Designed as an introduction for practitioners and residents. This book focuses on the clinical disease-state level of immunology, beginning with the basic concepts and then detailing the immunological aspects of various disease states involving major organs of the body. It explores how we can better understand disease and its treatment through clinical immunology; each chapter concludes with patterns for future research.

In order to understand common conditions such as coeliac disease and Crohn’s disease, one must view the gut in its evolutionary context. This is the novel approach to the gut and its diseases that is adopted in this book. The first part tells the story of the evolution of the gut itself – why it came about and how it has influenced the evolution of animals ever since. The second part focuses on the evolution of immunity and how the layers of immune mechanisms are retained in the gut, resembling the strata revealed in an archeological dig. The final part, ‘The Gastro-Archeologist’, ties the first two together and highlights how understanding the gut and immune system in their evolutionary context can help us understand diseases affecting them. Ambitious in its scope but telling a unique story from a refreshingly novel perspective, the book offers an informative and enjoyable read. As the story of the gut, immunity and disease unfolds, the author aims to endow readers with the same sense of awe and excitement that the subject evokes in him. Difficult concepts are illustrated using simple and colourful analogies, and the main content is supplemented with anecdotes and unusual and amusing facts throughout the book. The book is intended for anyone with an interest in the gut, its immunity and diseases, ranging from school and college biology and biomedical students, to professionals working in the field, and to patients suffering from intestinal diseases who want to understand more about their conditions.

Why another book about vaccines? There are already a few extremely well-written medical textbooks that provide comprehensive, state-of-the-art technical reviews regarding vaccine science. Additionally, in the past decade alone, a number of engrossing, provocative books have been published on various related issues ra- ing from vaccines against specific diseases to vaccine safety and policy. Yet there remains a significant gap in the literature – the history of vaccines. Vaccines: A Biography seeks to fill a void in the extant literature by focusing on the history of vaccines and in so doing, recounts the social, cultural, and scientific history of vaccines; it places them within their natural, historical context. The book traces the lineage – the “biography” – of individual vaccines, originating with deeply rooted medical problems and evolving to an eventual conclusion. Nonetheless, these are not “biographies” in the traditional sense; they do not trace an individual’s growth and development. Instead, they follow an idea as it is conceived and dev- oped, through the contributions of many. These are epic stories of discovery, of risk-takers, of individuals advancing medical science, in the words of the famous physical scientist Isaac Newton, “by standing on the shoulders of giants. ” One grant reviewer described the book’s concept as “triumphalist”; although meant as an indictment, this is only partially inaccurate.

New Directions of Conservation Medicine: Applied Cases of Ecological Health covers topics from emerging diseases and toxicants to the EcoHealth/One Health explosion. It challenges the notion that human health is an isolated concern removed from the bounds of ecology and species interactions.

International collaboration has become increasingly important in carrying out research activities. This book, written by a large group of scholars from Europe and Latin America, maps, analyses and discusses research collaboration between the two continents during the last twenty years. The empirical material underlines the richness and the variety of the links that bind the two continents, well beyond the simplified views of science, either as the brainchild of global networking or as a result of dependence. The book also develops an innovative methodological approach, combining bibliometric analysis, social surveying, in-depth interviews, and a careful analysis of research programmes and policies. While arguing that the asymmetry of relations that once existed in cooperation has turned into a more equal partnership between the two continents, it deciphers some of the reasons behind this more balanced cooperation. It also challenges the view of science as a global self-organising system through collective action at the level of researchers themselves. On the contrary, the importance of policy, institutions, and previously developed research is highlighted and recognised