Viruses: Intimate Invaders

Van G. Wilson is a Full Professor in the Department of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis in the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University Health Science Center since 1999, and also served 12 years as the college’s Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. Van’s scientific career focused on viruses of the papovavirus group, including SV40, polyomaviruses, and papillomaviruses with funding from the NIH, the National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and several other agencies. During that period Van published 71 scientific papers, 22 book chapters, 130 abstracts, and has edited 4 scientific books. Van has taught medical and graduate students for over 35 years and has lectured on his science around the world. Through these experiences, he has accumulated a broad, yet detailed, perspective about human-viruses interactions, from the molecular to the societal level. Van believes there are exciting, important, and interesting aspects of viral biologythat would be appealing and accessible to a general audience, and therefore he decided to create a book that is both educational and entertaining.

• 1 The Question of Life.- 2 Families, Forms, and Functions.- 3 Ancient or New – On the Origin of Viruses.- 4 Of Predators and Prey.- 5 Immunity, Immunity, Immunity.- 6 Viruses That Shaped Our World.- 7 SV40 - An Obscure Monkey Virus and the Golden Age of Molecular Biology.- 8 Viral Cancer.- 9 The Viruses Within - How Human Are We?.- 10 Vaccines and the Conquest of Viruses.- 11 New and Emerging Viruses.- 12 Beyond Antibiotics – Are Phages our Allies?.- 13 Viruses in Gene Therapy and Cancer Therapeutics.