The Beautiful Cure: The Revolution in Immunology and What It Means for Your Health - Hardcover

Davis, Daniel M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022637100X ISBN 13: 9780226371009

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2018

Synopsis

“Visceral.”—Wall Street Journal     “Illuminating.”—Publishers Weekly     “Heroic.”—Science

The immune system holds the key to human health. In The Beautiful Cure, leading immunologist Daniel M. Davis describes how the scientific quest to understand how the immune system works—and how it is affected by stress, sleep, age, and our state of mind—is now unlocking a revolutionary new approach to medicine and well-being.

The body’s ability to fight disease and heal itself is one of the great mysteries and marvels of nature. But in recent years, painstaking research has resulted in major advances in our grasp of this breathtakingly beautiful inner world: a vast and intricate network of specialist cells, regulatory proteins, and dedicated genes that are continually protecting our bodies. Far more powerful than any medicine ever invented, the immune system plays a crucial role in our daily lives. We have found ways to harness these natural defenses to create breakthrough drugs and so-called immunotherapies that help us fight cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and many age-related diseases, and we are starting to understand whether activities such as mindfulness might play a role in enhancing our physical resilience.

Written by a researcher at the forefront of this adventure, The Beautiful Cure tells a dramatic story of scientific detective work and discovery, of puzzles solved and mysteries that linger, of lives sacrificed and saved. With expertise and eloquence, Davis introduces us to this revelatory new understanding of the human body and what it takes to be healthy.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel M. Davis is professor of immunology at the University of Manchester in the UK. He is the author of The Compatibility Gene: How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves, which was picked by Bill Bryson for the Guardian’sBooks of the Year feature.

Review

"The Beautiful Cure . . . focuses on the science of immunology itself, taking us through the evolution of the discipline and the stories behind key advances in the field. . . . Davis conveys a visceral appreciation for how messy, and how human, medical science can be." (David A. Shaywitz Wall Street Journal)

"Davis leaves readers with a reminder that, for all the scientific innovations described here, the human immune system remains 'far more powerful than any medicine we have devised,' and that sleep, healthy eating, mindfulness, and other complementary practices all appear to help. A modern equivalent of Paul de Kruif’s 1926 classic, Microbe Hunters, Davis’s work is concise and illuminating." (Publishers Weekly)

"Davis endeavors to tell the story of human immunology in eight chapters, spanning foundational concepts, pivotal discoveries by brilliant scientists and their collaborators, the personal drama that has accompanied Nobel prizes and other recognition awarded in this highly competitive field, and anecdotes about how individual choices can affect one’s immune function and overall health. . . . A heroic effort. . . . The relatively brief overview reveals intriguing connections in immunology’s history, helps tie together stove-piped areas of inquiry, and offers fresh perspective on future research strategies." (Audrey R. Glynn Science)

"Refreshingly sober. . . . Intelligent and insightful." (Jerome Groopman New York Review of Books)

"Davis came to immunology from physics and, like visions of outer space, his picture of the human immune system—the little we actually know of it—is dizzying, intriguing, and strange. . . . Emphasizing that ‘no scientist is an island,’ Davis follows the strings of achievements and failures (always at least as valuable as the successes) that have led to radical reinterpretations of how the immune system works. His explanations are rich in technical detail, but always clear: as he recreates the revelatory moments in the labs, he puts the reader right there at the microscope, on the edge of discovery. I was surprised how quickly I became (temporarily) fluent in the language of dendritic cells, receptors, cytokines, and so on. Davis also clearly defines more familiar terms such as interferons and interleukins, explains cortisol’s effects and how it’s related to cortisone, and flags the truly revolutionary insights in this history of sometimes baffling eureka moments." (Laurie G. Politics and Prose, "Staff Picks")

"Davis deftly sketches the history of immune science and the surprising discoveries made by scientists who were initially ridiculed by their peers—the man who first named interferon, an antiviral agent in the blood, was met with disbelief by colleagues who jokingly called it ‘misinterpreton.’ Today, scientists are successfully tinkering with our natural immune response in the molecular equivalent of taking the brakes off, so that our hunter-killer cells launch war against tumors." (Telegraph, "Best Books of 2018")

"The Beautiful Cure sets the stage for a coming revolution in immunology, with fascinating stories of how researchers solved puzzles they didn’t know existed." (Jeremy Webb New Scientist)

"A terrific book by a consummate storyteller and scientific expert considers the past and future of the body’s ability to fight disease and heal itself. . . . We should all pay more attention to understanding the barricades that evolution has provided us with, that we have learned to train, because this war is endless. The Beautiful Cure is a worthy guide." (Adam Rutherford Guardian)

"Five stars. We all think we know, at a rough level, how the immune system works. Cells in the blood identify foreign invaders and go into battle with them. Inflammation and perhaps a fever develop, and eventually the body destroys the illegal immigrants. From then on their card is marked: the system remembers the microscopic terrorists, and if they ever reappear they are ganged up on and eliminated immediately. That’s immunity. In recent decades, though, the scientific picture has become hugely more complicated, as the immunologist Davis relates in this elegantly concise book." (Steven Poole Telegraph)

"Davis’s wonderful book The Beautiful Cure recounts how research into the immune system in recent decades has resulted in what amounts to a health revolution. Immunotherapy drugs are now worth billions of dollars, and cancers and autoimmune diseases that were once considered untreatable can now be fought and, in a few cases, even cured. There is little doubt that there will be further progress in the years to come. Davis recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how all this came about." (Henry Marsh New Statesman)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 022637100X
• ISBN 13: 9780226371009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256