{"title":"Books by Alain L Fymat","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780228867210","title":"Pandemics","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver the natural history of zoonoses and their emergence or re-emergence in the early 21st century, the general causes have been a mixture of humans' creation of new urban or agricultural ecosystems in the ruins of older, non-human dominated ecosystems; economies of scale and monocultures in agriculture; fast global travel and unfettered free trade; loss of land and sea biodiversity; social inequities; marginalization of poor people; rapid sprawl of slums; and human-induced climate change. These modifying factors contribute to the destabilization of ecosystems, the dispersal of animals and microbes into new areas, and the creation of a single interconnected world - a giant microbial mixing vessel for infectious agents that previously stayed separate and stayed put. This convergence altered forever the way in which we will experience epidemics and ushered us into a new pandemic age. All these issues must be encompassed in the context of globalization, climate change, ecological collapse, species extinctions, human overpopulation, huge economic and political disparities, and unintended consequences of well-meaning interventions. Unfortunately, our world remains underprepared to predict, detect, respond to, and, even less, prevent infectious disease outbreaks and a fortiori pandemics, whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberately released. These threats endanger lives, disrupt families and societies, and wreck havoc on economies. They do not respect national boundaries; do not discriminate between different ethnicities, religions, social or economic status or even age; and can spread rapidly, jeopardizing the health, security, and prosperity of all countries. Yet, the cost of failing to control outbreaks, ruining and losing lives, destabilizing the social fabric, and decimating economies is considerably greater than the cost of prevention. It is therefore in each country's security interest to strengthen global health security and manage the risk of infectious disease outbreaks that might further develop into full-blown pandemics. In this treatise, I offer a tentative prescription for predicting and preventing pandemics, and hopefully arresting this infernal merry-go-round.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227778265461,"sku":"9780228867210","price":46.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780228867210_ed9453e2-8e24-49ff-9fac-02eb72a5073c.jpg?v=1786012332"},{"product_id":"9780228869696","title":"Nanomedicine","description":"\u003cp\u003eNanotechnology includes diverse fields of engineering and science and may be able to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications (in nanomedicine, nanoelectronics, biomaterials, energy production, consumer products, etc.). The effects of artificial nanomaterials on the human body have long been known, as many practical uses of nanoparticles go back a long time, but medical applications are of special relevance. As a medical application of nanotechnology, nanomedicine is focused on harnessing nanotechnology to effectively diagnose, treat, and prevent various diseases. It aims to efficiently deliver medications that have been reduced\/minimized to the necessary dosages, and in the places where they are needed, it results in improved outcomes with less medication and less or no adverse reactions or side effects. In 1995, approval of the very first nano-therapeutic product (Doxil) is generally viewed as the dawn of nanomedicine for human use. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent need for an effective vaccine. Nanotechnology played an important role in enabling the development of messenger-RNA vaccines that have since been administered worldwide and may provide a novel platform for vaccine designs. Biological processes, including the ones necessary for life and those that lead to cancer, occur at the nanoscale. Accordingly, nanobiotechnology provides us with the opportunity to study and manipulate macromolecules in real time during the earliest stages of cancer progression; the possibility of rapidly and sensitively detecting cancer-related molecules, enabling us to detect molecular changes even when they occur only in a small percentage of cells; and the potential to generate entirely novel and highly effective therapeutic agents. It also offers important benefits for diagnosis by providing new molecular contrast agents and materials to enable an earlier and more accurate initial diagnosis, as well as continual monitoring of cancer patients during their treatment. It offers the means to target chemotherapies directly and selectively to cancerous cells and neoplasms, guide in surgical resection of tumors, and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of radiation-based and other treatment modalities, all of which add up to a decreased risk to the patient and an increased probability of survival. Another promising application of nanomedicine principles is in clinical neuroscience, particularly in the treatment of neurological disorders (epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc.). While nanomedicine has not yet fully delivered on its promises, it remains an important new vista in medicine in the several instances covered in this book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311633183093,"sku":"9780228869696","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780228869696_2af9ec9e-b95b-4c30-8bcd-9603bdecf4c5.jpg?v=1786012334"},{"product_id":"9780228854975","title":"Cancer","description":"\u003cp\u003eCancer is one of the oldest diseases seen in human specimens, quite possibly the oldest, the quest for its cure having begun some 4,000 years ago. However, it was fleetingly rare, hidden by other illnesses such as cholera, dropsy, leprosy, plague, pneumonia, smallpox, and tuberculosis. As these diseases were vanquished, and as the human lifespan lengthens, cancer has emerged. Many diseases are lumped together under the denomination \"cancer,\" because they share a fundamental biological feature, namely abnormal cell growth. However, cancer is not a single disease. It is a multiplicity of diseases caused by the uncontrolled growth of a single cell unleashed by mutations. Cancer cells can grow faster, flourish more profusely, adapt better, recover more rapidly, and repair faster than normal cells. They are in effect more perfect versions of normal cells, and can even become immortal! We naively thought that cancer could be defeated by either preventing mutations from occurring in normal cells or else finding the means to eliminate the mutated cells without compromising normal growth. Unfortunately, this view did not take into account the pernicious genetic intertwining of normal and cancerous growths. Woven into our genome, the mutated genes are but distorted versions of the normal ones; they are braided together, and unbraiding them continues to be the most formidable undertaking. Fortunately, the vast majority of cancer cases are due to environmental risk factors, many of which being controllable lifestyle choices, and thus preventable. In developing cancer, individuals differ in both their inherited tendency and exposure to the environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book presents the nine major recent developments in cancer treatment, which provide great hope for the future. These include innate immunotherapy with neutrophil-mediated drug delivery for the suppression of postoperative malignant glioma recurrence; synthetic immunotherapy using either chimeric antigen receptor T-cells or programmed-death inhibitors; DNA origami\/Trojan technique to foil drug resistance in solid tumors; enzyme mnk-2 conversion to overcome drug resistance in breast, lung and colon cancers; antiangiogenesis to cut off the blood vessels alimenting the cancer cells; self-eradication of cancer during meiosis; combating inflammation to limit tumor invasion, progression, and metastasis; electropermeabilizing the cancer cell membrane to deliver drugs to the cell's interior; and employing nanochemotherapy to deliver nanoparticles encapsulating cytotoxic drugs to tumors.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311633314165,"sku":"9780228854975","price":41.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780228854975_fa6db771-26eb-4f4a-baa9-347e7b47630d.jpg?v=1786012315"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-alain-l-fymat.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}