Essentials of Stem Cell Biology, Second Edition,   ISBN:9780123747297

Customer Rating: 

This large book follows the common trend in new and emerging sciences in being written by a large number of authors who are active researchers in the field. The science simply has not yet had time to resolve itself into a common body of knowledge that one author can present to the world.

In this book there are some 200 contributors from literally around the world. A quick scan shows people from the United States, Israel, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Japan and more. As you would expect each team of authors concentrates on the particular area of research in which he is engaged. This gives you an up to date view of the state of the art at the risk of having chapters of unequal quality.

The book starts off with the simple question, "What are stem cells." There are then chapters on what they do, how they work, methods and procedures used in research, and several chapters on how stem cell research is developing treatments for various diseases. The book concludes with four chapters on the regulations and ethics of stem cell research. This includes chapters on governmental and religious aspects. This sections concludes with a paper by the actress Mary Tyler Moore who has had type 1 diabetes for more than 40 years. She titles her chapter "It's Not About Curiosity, It's About Cures."

This book is the definitive state of the art as it exists today.

Customer Rating: 

The book gives an excellent introduction to the essentials of Stem Cell Biology, along with its application seen from an mammalian point of view.

Topics on both human and embryonic stem cells are covered together with techniques for therapautic cloning, the importance of epigenetics, laboratory methods, culturing of stem cells etc, and gives thereby a very good overviewic understanding on the different approaches possible regarding this knowledge and technology.

Customer Rating: 

The 69 chapters in this book, the 2nd edition published in July 2009, together contain a wealth of information from developmental biology and molecular biology to medicine. Many chapters contain helpful diagrams and pictures to go along with explanations. However, it is very mammalian-oriented, with insufficient coverage of regeneration and stem cell biology in non-mammals. In addition, this type of book should have many more references at the end of each chapter that can lead the reader to the original journal articles rather than a list of review articles. Some chapters have better lists of references than others. Overall, the Essentials of Stem Cell Biology contains more than essentials for mammalian stem cell biology, including methods, but is deficient in essentials such as non-mammalian stem cell biology and references to primary research articles.

Customer Rating: 

I have this book shipped from US to Thailand. I cannot believe that it takes only two weeks which is earlier than I expected it to be arriving. This book is a must for researcher and student who work on stem cell research. It's a good reference with the most up-to-date information.

A special feature of this book include the information about iPS cell. It really help me understand what is stem cell and its application. However, the book is not for a beginner in this field. Some aspects in this book require advance knowledge in Cell biology, Immunology as well as Genetics Science. I don't have a very strong background in cell biology at all and I know nothing about immunology and genetics at all. So I have to review those information first in order to understand what it says in the book.

But I give more than 5 stars for this book!

Customer Rating: 

Well balanced, superbly written muiltiauthored textbook. Excellent discussion of basic cell biology of embryonic and adult (nonembryonic) stem cells from multiple sources, laboratory techniques and potential clinical applications and includes a chapter on ethics and national policy for stem cell research. Suitable for students, clinicians as well as experienced stem cell biologists.