George P. Smith – författare

Religion is a dominant force in the lives of many Americans. It animates, challenges, directs and shapes, as well, the legal, political, and scientific agendas of the new Age of Biotechnology. In a very real way, religion, biomedical technology and law are - epistemologically - different. Yet, they are equal vectors of force in defining reality and approaching an understanding of it. Indeed, all three share a synergetic relationship, for they seek to understand and improve the human condition.

This book strikes a rich balance between thorough analysis (in the body), anchored in sound references to religion, law and medical scientific analysis, and a strong scholarly direction in the end notes. It presents new insights into the decision-making processes of the new Age of Biotechnology and shows how religion, law and medical science interact in shaping, directing and informing the political processes.

This volume will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion and theology, philosophy, ethics, (family) law, science, medicine, political science and public policy, and gender studies. It will serve as a reference source and can be used in graduate and undergraduate courses in law, medicine and religion.

Several books and many papers have been published during the last decade on the design and the use of new nanomaterials in medicine and technology, which describe major concepts of nanotechnology. Meanwhile, a new promising type of nanomaterials-bacteriophages-emerged recently as a result of the evolution of phage display technique. Bacteriophages have a unique feature - completely the opposite of other nanomaterials -their structure and function are encrypted in their genomic DNA, which can be intentionally modified or even rewritten using routine genetic engineering techniques. In particular, a paradigm of landscape phage with multivalently displayed foreign peptides evolved, which allows constructing phage with unique surface architectures and emerged properties. Recently, phage, as a new kind of nanomaterials attracted the attention of specialists working in peripheral, and even very diverse areas from genetics and molecular biology, such as pharmaceutical science, material science, microelectronics, biosensors, detection, environmental sciences, etc. Penetration of the phage technology into these new disciplines required the development of a new instructive concept, which resulted in this publication. This comprehensive book, of value to researchers as well as scientists, introduces readers into this hot new area of phage nanobiotechnology. It summarises the existing data on the phage nanomaterials and discusses their use in different areas of medicine, science and technology. With contributions by top level experts and pioneers in phage display, the major goal of this book is to bring the phage display technique closer to specialists in these diverse areas of medicine, science and technology, where phage-derived nanomaterials can be most beneficial.