J.D. Turner – författare

Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of late life with devastating consequences for the afflicted and their carers and poses one of the major challenges to medical research. Until recently, little hope of effective therapies capable of slowing the disease process or preventing its occurrence was apparent. With recent advances in the genetics and molecular biology of the disease processes and the demonstration of the involvement of multiple aetiological factors, however, real chances are now appearing for the identification of preventive drugs. In this discussion, experts from disciplines ranging from molecular genetics to the clinic provide review and novel data concerning the aetiology of AD and the establishment of drugfinding screening methods.

The use of cells for the treatment of a variety of diseases is no longer a dream. Today, blood transfusion, bone marrow transplantation, the use of ex vivo cultured skin in wound healing, and peripheral stern cell transplantation, including the ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stern cells after high-dose chemo/radiation therapy, are routine. This high standard of knowledge and skills in cell transplantation might also re­ sult in tackling hitherto untreatable diseases. Organ transplantation is presently the only life-saving treatment for a variety of conditions. Important findings in cell and molecular biol­ ogy, the identification of hematopoietic, mesenchymal and neuronal stern cells, together with breakthroughs in the methodology for isolat­ ing, purifying, expanding, and storing human cells could make cellular therapy an alternative to organ transplantation in certain diseases within the next decade. Placental blood may be the source of choice in isolating naive progenitor cells for allogeneic transplantation. Immunotherapy is the most hopeful strategy to date for the treat­ ment of tumors resistant to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or hor­ mone therapy. It includes the use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, ex vivo activated memory T lymphocytes, and cell-based vaccines.

Occupant la presque totalité du Codex VIII, «Zostrien» est le plus long traité de la Bibliothèque de Nag Hammadi. Il figure aussi au premier plan de l'histoire des idées dans l'Antiquité tardive, puisqu'il fut lu et réfuté dans l'école de Plotin, à Rome, dans la seconde moitié du IIIe siècle, et qu'il présente des parallèles frappants avec une des sources utilisées par Marius Victorinus. Par son fort contenu philosophique, «Zostrien» jette un éclairage nouveau sur l'histoire du platonisme avant et autour de Plotin. La présente édition offre un texte copte nouvellement établi de cette oeuvre capitale, accompagnée d'une traduction française, d'une ample introduction, d'un commentaire exhaustif et d'index complets gréco-copte, copte et des noms propres. Cet ouvrage intéressera les coptologues, les spécialistes du gnosticisme et les historiens de la philosophie.