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Volume Immunodeficiency Diseases in Springer's gold-standard reference work on medical immunology focuses on infectious diseases. In tandem with its three counterpart volumes it offers the most wide-ranging and authoritative repository of knowledge on infectious diseases, with readily accessed contributions by the world's leading authorities on the subject. The encyclopedia covers the material from all angles, with more than 1000 pages of essays on the genetics, physiology, metabolism, pathogenesis and applied microbiology of all known infectious diseases, and includes access to an e-reference work that will include ongoing updates reflecting the latest advances in the field.An outstanding new resource of immense value to a wide range of medical researchers and practitioners, the encyclopedia features a user-friendly subdivision of diseases according to their affective locus in the human body. The sections cover integumentary, skeletal, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive transmissible pathogens. This high-profile encyclopedia will be an essential addition to academic libraries worldwide.

Antibodies protect us from a wide range of infectious diseases and cancers and have become an indispensable tool in science-both for conventional immune response research as well as other areas related to protein identification analysis. This second edition of Making and Using Antibodies: A Practical Handbook provides clear guidance on all aspects

Monoclonal antibodies have become important treatments for cancer, inflammation and a wide range of other diseases, representing an increasing share of the most successful pharmaceutical markets. The technologies to discover these drugs have been developed by select centers of excellence in industry and academia, and are continually being fine tuned in the race to identify the best antibody-based drug candidates and accelerate their paths to patients. The objective of this volume is to provide a series of guides to those evaluating and preparing to enter particular areas within the field and to offer specialized perspectives to established researchers. The chapters set into context the significance of key developments and important considerations for selecting different approaches, such as antibody humanization, isotype selection, lead candidate selection criteria and protein production. All contributors to this work are experts in their fields, and many have played pivotal roles in the creation of these technologies.

As recent advances in immunosuppression and apheresis techniques have opened new avenues for the management of humoral immunity, interest in ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation has been renewed. Moreover, new screening techniques - such as the single antigen bead assay - allow for the detection and definition of very low levels of alloantibody, which has had a positive impact on the treatment possibilities in highly sensitized adult patients with end-stage renal disease. But despite these advances, a theoretical rationale is still missing for both the decision to transplant a sensitized patient and the classification of the transplant as low, medium or high risk. There is also no uniform approach with regard to pre-transplant desensitization protocols, and it is unclear whether particular post-transplant immunosuppression will be required and what would be the best combination treatment. Last but not least, the frequency and actual clinical impact of alloantibodies developed after transplantation on short- and long-term graft survival need to be ascertained. Aimed especially at the clinician, this publication presents recent insights in the characterization and pathogenetic role of humoral immunity in chronic allograft injury and investigates the perspectives for novel immunosuppressive therapies to control antibody production after transplantation.

Written for researchers and professionals in the fields of biomedical research, immunology, biochemistry, molecular biology, pathology, and biotechnology, Basic Methods in Antibody Production and Characterization uses a cookbook approach to presenting the methods for the production, characterization, and use of antibodies. Antibodies described

The use of monoclonal antibodies in treating disease has long held tantalizing promise, and the recent explosion of successful clinical trials-leading to the licensing of novel antibody-based therapeutic agents-has clearly demonstrated the power of recombinant antibody engineering, and greatly rejuvenated interest in their emergent clinical applications. In Diagnostic and Therapeutic Antibodies, a team of experts comprehensively reviews the theoretical and practical aspects of applying antibodies in both the laboratory and clinic. For general understanding, the book thoroughly introduces the basic science of the antibody molecule, including its structure and generation. Several novel in vivo applications of therapeutic antibodies are then presented to illustrate their special value in varied clinical settings. For those new to the field, there are readily reproducible methods for generating and purifying antibodies and for modifying them for clinical application, including how to measure their affinity and immunoactivity, and how to employ them in staining procedures and in a variety of in vitro assays. Timely and comprehensive, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Antibodies offers today{608}s clinical researchers a concise introduction to the field, as well as a highly useful compendium of practical protocols that will greatly facilitate the application of these powerful new diagnostic and therapeutic agents.