• Balances a rigorous, wide-reaching account of this important field of research with accessibility of presentation, ensuring the student is engaged not intimidated.
• Unique modular format breaks the subject down into discrete, manageable chunks, to help motivate - rather than intimidate - the student.
• Custom-drawn full colour illustrations enliven the text, helping the student to visualize and comprehend the concepts being introduced.
• Online Resource Centre features figures from the book, to facilitate lecture preparation.

Cell division is a central biological process: it yields the cells required for development and growth, and supplies the replacement cells to repair and maintain old or damaged tissue.

But how does this cell division occur? How is it regulated? And what are the consequences when regulation fails?

The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control provides an engaging insight into the process of cell division, bringing to the student a much-needed synthesis of a subject entering a period of unprecedented growth as an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cell division are revealed.

The book gives the student a complete overview of the process of cell division - from chromosome division, through mitosis, cytokinesis, and meiosis - before exploring how cell proliferation is controlled, and how the cell cycle responds to DNA damage. Finally, the book examines the intrinsic relationship between the cell cycle and cancer, and how a detailed understanding of the cell cycle may lead to new specific therapies to treat the disease.

The Cell Cycle combines articulate prose with striking full colour illustrations, while the unique Primers in Biology modular structure integrates text, illustrations, definitions, and literature references for each topic into one double-page spread, bringing to the student's fingertips all the tools that they need to master that topic.

An understanding of the cell cycle is a central tool in gaining insights into many biological systems and processes. The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control is the ideal resource for any student wishing to develop a sound grasp of this vitally important subject.

Readership: Upper level undergraduates studying molecular cell biology, developmental biology and cancer biology, and an ideal primer for those postgraduates who need an overview of this subject.

• The Cell Cycle
• Model Organisms in Cell-Cycle Analysis
• The Cell-Cycle Control System
• Chromosome Duplication
• Early Mitosis: Preparing for Chromosome Segregation
• Assembly of the Mitotic Spindle
• The Completion of Mitosis
• Cytokinesis
• Meiosis
• Control of Cell Proliferation and Growth
• Cell-Cycle Respomses to DNA Damage
• The Cell Cycle in Cancer