medical biotechnology: Preface

medical biotechnology

Cheryl L. Patten, Terry L. Delovitch, Bernard R. Glick

Preface

From the very beginning of the biotechnology revolution in the early

1970s, many scientists understood that this new technology would radically

change the way that we think about health care. They understood

early on, well before any products were commercialized, that medical science

was about to undergo a major paradigm shift in which all of our

previous assumptions and approaches would change dramatically. Forty

years later, biotechnology has delivered on much of its early promise.

Hundreds of new therapeutic agents, diagnostic tests, and vaccines have

been developed and are currently available in the marketplace. Moreover,

it is clear that we are presently just at the tip of a very large iceberg, with

many more products in the pipeline. It is likely that, in the next 10 to 15

years, biotechnology will deliver not only new products to diagnose, prevent,

and treat human disease but also entirely new approaches to treating

a wide range of hitherto diffi cult-to-treat or untreatable diseases.

We have written Medical Biotechnology with the premise that it might

serve as a textbook for a wide range of courses intended for premedical

and medical students, dental students, pharmacists, optometrists, nurses,

nutritionists, genetic counselors, hospital administrators, and other individuals

who are stakeholders in the understanding and advancement of

biotechnology and its impact on the practice of modern medicine. The

book is intended to be as jargon-free and as easy to read as possible. In

some respects, our goal is to demystify the discipline of medical biotechnology.

This is not a medical textbook per se. However, a discussion of

some salient features of selected diseases is presented to illustrate the applications

of many biotechniques and biochemical mechanisms. Thus, this

book may be considered a biomedical road map that provides a fundamental

understanding of many approaches being pursued by scientists to

diagnose, prevent, and treat a wide range of ailments. Indeed, this presents

a large challenge, and the future is diffi cult to predict. Nevertheless, we

hope that this volume will provide a useful introduction to medical biotechnology

for a wide range of individuals.