Audible Studios on Brilliance
The Compatibility Gene: How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves
Key Metrics
- Daniel M Davis
- Audible Studios on Brilliance
- Audio
- 9781522664741
- -
- -
- Medical > Immunology
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
The Compatibility Gene takes readers on a global journey of discovery spanning 60 years, involving scores of scientists, and encompassing the history of transplants and immunology. That journey has revealed astonishing links between who we are as individuals and our never-ceasing struggle to survive disease. Most of the 25,000 genes we possess are the same for all of us. Compatibility genes are those that vary most from person to person and give each of us a unique molecular signature. These genes determine both the extent to which we are susceptible to a vast range of illnesses and the different ways each of us fights disease. In The Compatibility Gene, distinguished immunologist Daniel Davis draws on new research to suggest a number of even more fascinating--and controversial--conclusions about compatibility genes: that we find others more or less sexy according to their compatibility genes (dating services are starting to match people in this way); that the wiring between some neurons is kept or broken according to the activity of compatibility genes; and that compatibility genes influence the chances of a couple having a successful pregnancy. Profoundly personal, life-forming, and life-changing decisions appear to be governed by the actions of a few inherited genes. Most importantly, Davis proposes that because we each respond slightly differently to any particular disease, in the not-too-distant future vaccines and other medications may be tailored to match our compatibility genes, a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against disease. Including vivid portraits of the scientists who worked tirelessly to unlock the secrets of compatibility genes, as well as patients who survived disease due to lucky genetic inheritances, The Compatibility Gene explains an aspect of human biology that will undoubtedly have profound impacts on medical practice in the 21st Century.
Author Bio
Daniel M. Davis began studying the immune system at Harvard University, after obtaining a PhD in Physics. He is Professor of Immunology at Manchester University and Director of Research in the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research, having previously acted as Head of the Immunology Section at Imperial College London. He has published over 130 academic papers, collectively cited over 11,000 times, including articles in Nature, Science and Scientific American.
Davis is passionate about taking readers to the cutting edge of important research, especially on science subjects with real-life implications for human health and wellbeing. His book The Secret Body: How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live offers a revolutionary new vision of human biology and the scientific breakthroughs that will transform our lives. He was described by Stephen Fry as a writer who “makes you look at everything human in a new, challenging and thrilling way” and is often invited to speak at festivals, conferences and other public events. You can watch his short history of the scientific revolution for WIRED here.
Source: Princeton University Press
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