Gene Biotechnology

Covering state-of-the-art technologies and a broad range of practical applications, the Third Edition of Gene Biotechnology presents tools that researchers and students need to understand and apply today's biotechnology techniques. Many of the currently available books in molecular biology contain only protocol recipes, failing to explain the princ

Many scientists find themselves working in the laboratory without sufficient background in current biotechnology methods. Others want to keep up with the revolution in biotechnology and the flood of new methodologies. This book provides a solution for both: a multidisciplinary approach to the methods essential to biotechnical development. C

The Gene Business, the first detailed, analytic study of the corporate agenda for biotechnology, takes a close look at the for-profit use of genetic engineering and molecular biology. Alarmed by the possible long-term effects of corporate-controlled university research, which has already led to the cloning of fast-growing trees in the Amazon and the replacement of basic Third World crops by "supercrops," Yoxen provides a readable account of how genetic engineering evolved from a pure science into a profitable business. He examines the structure of today's multinational gene business, the effects it has had to date, and its scientific, economic, social, and political implications.

The scientific scramble to discover the first generation of drugs created through genetic engineering. The biotech arena emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, when molecular biology, one of the fastest-moving areas of basic science in the twentieth century, met the business world. Gene Jockeys is a detailed study of the biotech projects that led to five of the first ten recombinant DNA drugs to be approved for medical use in the United States: human insulin, human growth hormone, alpha interferon, erythropoietin, and tissue plasminogen activator. Drawing on corporate documents obtained from patent litigation, as well as interviews with the ambitious biologists who called themselves gene jockeys, historian Nicolas Rasmussen chronicles the remarkable, and often secretive, work of the scientists who built a new domain between academia and the drug industry in the pursuit of intellectual rewards and big payouts. In contrast to some who critique the rise of biotechnology, Rasmussen contends that biotech was not a swindle, even if the public did pay a very high price for the development of what began as public scientific resources. Within the biotech enterprise, the work of corporate scientists went well beyond what biologists had already accomplished within universities, and it accelerated the medical use of the new drugs by several years. In his technically detailed and readable narrative, Rasmussen focuses on the visible and often heavy hands that construct and maintain the markets in public goods like science. He looks closely at how science follows money, and vice versa, as researchers respond to the pressures and potential rewards of commercially viable innovations. In biotechnology, many of those engaged in crafting markets for genetically engineered drugs were biologists themselves who were in fact trying to do science. This book captures that heady, fleeting moment when a biologist could expect to do great science through the private sector and be rewarded with both wealth and scientific acclaim.

An illustrated dictionary defining the most relevant and frequently used terms in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering.

Describes, in a delightfully accessible way, the fascinating world of the molecular biology of the gene.

Applied Molecular Biotechnology: The Next Generation of Genetic Engineering explains state-of-the-art advances in the rapidly developing area of molecular biotechnology, the technology of the new millennium. Comprised of chapters authored by leading experts in their respective fields, this authoritative reference text:Highlights the latest omics-ba