Hepatitis B

The Hunt for a Killer Virus

Baruch S. Blumberg

244 pages, parution le 16/12/2003

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Résumé

About 375 million people are infected with the hepatitis B virus. It has killed more people than AIDS and also causes millions of cases of liver cancer. The discovery of this deadly virus and the vaccine against it--a vaccine that is sharply decreasing the infection rate worldwide and is probably the first effective cancer vaccine--was one of the great triumphs of twentieth-century medicine. And it almost didn't happen.

With wit and insight, this scientific memoir and story of discovery describes how Baruch Blumberg and a team of researchers found a virus they were not looking for and created a vaccine for a disease they previously knew little about--work that took the author around the world and won him the Nobel Prize.

Blumberg and his collaborators were investigating relationships between gene distribution and disease susceptibility, research that was yielding interesting data but no real breakthroughs. Many viewed their work as more field trip than science. But, through decades of hard work and investigative twists and turns, their pursuit led to the hepatitis B antigen, the elusive virus itself, and, ultimately, the vaccine. As he takes the reader through the detective work that culminated in his incredible discovery, the author recounts with immediacy exciting moments in the lab and in the field--from a hair-raising flight to Africa to an unpleasant encounter with Alaskan sled dogs.

The hepatitis B story is more than a fascinating chronicle of a major discovery. What Blumberg followed to the virus was a trail of remarkable "accidents" that happen when scientists seek answers to interesting questions. Those events, combined with the investigator's determined persistence, resulted in studies that generated a pharmaceutical industry, have far-flung public-health applications, and saved millions of lives.

Introduction
Differences in Response to Disease
Oxford and the National Institutes of Health: Inherited Variation and Susceptibility to Disease
Polymorphisms and Geography: Disease, Genetics, and Evolutionary Biology
We Discover a New Polymorphism: The Ag System
The Discovery of Australia Antigen
What Is Australia Antigen?
Identifying the Hepatitis B Virus
The Control of Posttransfusion Hepatitis
The Hepatitis B Vaccine
Hepatitis B Virus and Cancer of the Liver
What Is Now Known about HBV?
Back to Polymorphisms and Inherited Susceptibility to Disease
HBV and Its Connections: Current Research and the Future

Appendix 1: Scientists and Staff at Fox Chase Cancer Center Referred to in the Text
Appendix 2: Research on Hyaluronic Acid
Appendix 3: The National Institutes of Health and the Funding of Basic Medical Research
Appendix 4: Molecular Biology
Appendix 5: A Gazetteer of Selected Place-Names Used in the Text
Index

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	Baruch S. Blumberg
Parution	16/12/2003
Nb. de pages	244
Format	15,5 x 23,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	385g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691116235
ISBN13	978-0-691-11623-5