Dendrimers in Medicine and Biotechnology: New Molecular Tools [Hardcover]

U. Boas (Author), J. B. Christensen (Author), P. M. H. Heegaard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0854048529 | ISBN-13: 978-0854048526 | Publication Date: May 11, 2006 | Edition: 1

Dendrimers are a new class of macromolecule increasingly used in the fields of synthetic organic chemistry, biology, medicine and biotechnology. Using an interdisciplinary approach with particular emphasis on biological applications, Dendrimers in Medicine and Biotechnology: New Molecular Tools discusses the relationship between the dendrimer molecular motif and its biological properties. Throughout the book, examples from current research are provided.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews ...

Dendrimers are essentially molecules that grow like trees, by branching out again and again. Ideally, chemists want to control the growth of these structures (eg by adding the branching units in a stepwise, layer-by-layer fashion) so that the resulting molecular tree is a well-defined, monodisperse molecular entity, more akin to a natural protein than to an industrial polymer.  

As dendrimers have been around for over 20 years, there is a growing expectation for them to grow up and do something useful. They have shown particular promise in various parts of the transport business, including the transfer of DNA or certain drugs into the cell. Moreover, dendrimers could act as drugs themselves, if parts of their structures included suitably reactive groups. However, before one can consider throwing a new kind of molecular compound at patients, there is a lot of small print to sort out, such as toxicity, biodegradability, survival time in the organism, and transport efficiency. 

Boas et al  have compiled the current knowledge of what one can and cannot do with dendrimers in a biological context (ie medical or biotech applications) into a handy tome of under 200 pages. There isn’t any complicated chemistry in it, so people coming from the application side should find it useful and accessible. Conversely, there is some medical terminology that comes without explanation, such that chemists may find it a little bit harder to understand.  

All in all, the book should provide valuable insights for anybody interested in the chemistry–biology interface[.]

Michael Gross, CHEMISTRY WORLD, September 2006

About the Author

Ulrik Boas received his M. Sc. Degree in organic chemistry from the University of Copenhagen in 1996. After a period as a research scientist in the biotech industry he returned to academics and received a Ph. D. degree in organic and macromolecular chemistry in 2002. He is currently working as a research scientist at the Danish Institute of Food and Veterinary Research. His fields of interest are method development in organic synthesis and the use of dendrimers in immunology and protein chemistry.

Jørn B. Christensen received his M. Sc. Degree in organic chemistry from the University of Copenhagen in 1987 and received his Ph.D degree in organic and materials chemistry in 1994. He is currently holding a position as associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. His fields of interest are development of methodologies in organic synthesis, materials science and uses of dendrimers in chemistry. He has published around 60 papers.

Peter Heegaard received his M.Sc. degree (biochemistry) from the University of Copenhagen in 1985 and a Ph.D. in protein chemistry from the same university in 1992. He has since worked as an immunologist/protein chemist in infection biology projects at the University of Copenhagen and, presently, at the Danish Institute of Food and Veterinary Research. His is currently occupied with prion diagnostics, acute phase responses in various infection models and peptide and dendrimer immunochemistry. He has published around 70 papers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry; 1 edition (May 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0854048529
• ISBN-13: 978-0854048526
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,235,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars way to making environmentally friendly fire-resistant resin, May 9, 2000

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Young-Whan Park (Taejon,Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FIRE RETARDANCE OF POLYMERS (Special Publications) (Hardcover)

Theortical research into intumescent is rather under developing area in spite that state-of-the-art technology is considerably developed in industry. It will helpful reading this book to those who are interested in research and development of flame retardant system or application of it to polymeric material or textiles.