Michael Parnham – författare

This textbook provides a unique support in gaining essential knowledge on the immune response, its diagnosis and its modification by drugs and chemicals. The first section of the book, covering a basic introduction to immunology and its relevance for human disease, has been updated to accommodate new immunological concepts. The second section on immunodiagnostics has been further expanded to describe widely used molecular techniques and is followed by a systematic coverage of drugs affecting the immune system, revised to cover recent developments. The book concludes with a chapter on immunotoxicology.

This third edition continues the unique format dealing with four related topics in a single volume, obviating the need to refer to several different textbooks. New aids to the reader include a two-column format, glossaries of technical terms and appendix reference tables. The emphasis on illustrations is maintained from the first edition.

Highlighting 15 selected chiral structures, which represent candidate or marketed drugs, and their chemical syntheses, the authors acquaint the reader with the fascinating achievements of synthetic and medicinal chemistry.

The book starts with an introduction treating the discovery and development of a new drug entity. Each of the 15 subsequent chapters presents one of the target structures and begins with a description of its biological profile as well as any known molecular mechanisms of action, underlining the importance of its structural and stereochemical features. This section is followed by detailed discussions of synthetic approaches to the chiral target structure, highlighting creative ideas, the scaling-up of laboratory methods and their replacement by efficient modern technologies for large-scale production. Nearly 60 synthetic reactions, most of them stereoselective, catalytic or biocatalytic, as well as chiral separating methodologies are included in the book.

Vitomir Sunjic and Michael J. Parnham provide an invaluable source of information for scientists in academia and the pharmaceutical industry who are actively engaged in the interdisciplinary development of new drugs, as well as for advanced students in chemistry and related fields.