Overview

In the pages of this rich and detailed narrative, whose characters include the field's leading scientists as well as key patients and their families, the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors tell the story of the race to be the first to do gene therapy (a feat almost certain to garner a Nobel Prize and a place in medical history), uncovering the behind-the-scenes machinations and rivalries among the prima-donna researchers at some of the world's leading medical centers, including the National Institutes of Health. They also reveal the details of the initial human experiments in gene transfer and the agonizing decisions faced by the families of the first children to be submitted to the therapy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Gorner ,  Jeff Lyon
Publisher:   WW Norton & Co
Imprint:   WW Norton & Co
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.924kg
ISBN:  

9780393315288

ISBN 10:   0393315282
Pages:   636
Publication Date:   08 January 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

Starred Review. Well written, exhaustively researched, and filled with the human stories of the scientists, the doctors, and the patients whose only hope is this new field of medicine. Starred Review. [An] epic, magnificent history. Engrossing... Detailed and fascinating. Meticulously researched, this is an insider's look at the work and personalities of the scientists making their careers in human genetic research. An important work. Fast-paced, highly readable... As engaging as any thriller, [it] brings to life the pathos, the excitement, and the drudgery inherent in this sort of research.

Starred Review. Well written, exhaustively researched, and filled with the human stories of the scientists, the doctors, and the patients whose only hope is this new field of medicine. -- Kirkus Reviews An important work. -- Library Journal Fast-paced, highly readable... As engaging as any thriller, [it] brings to life the pathos, the excitement, and the drudgery inherent in this sort of research. -- Philadelphia Inquirer Starred Review. [An] epic, magnificent history. -- Publishers Weekly Engrossing... Detailed and fascinating. -- The New Yorker

Adapted from the authors' Pulitzer Prize - winning series for the Chicago Tribune, a detailed look at the cutting edge of medical research: attacking disease by repairing inherited flaws in the cells of the human body. Gene therapy is potentially as revolutionary as Pasteur's germ theory of disease, especially as science uncovers more and more diseases that can be traced to genetic defects. It is also fraught with controversy, as many researchers urge extreme caution in the introduction of foreign genetic material (often derived from viruses) into the human body. Others (notably William French Anderson, formerly director of the molecular hematology department of the National Institutes of Health) want to push forward with therapies that promise to eradicate genetically based diseases. It is easy to understand this attitude when reading about Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, in which patients have to be restrained to prevent them from attacking their own bodies (as well as those tending them) with their teeth, or adenosine deaminase deficiency, in which the body has no defenses against infection. The authors put often epic political battles in the context of the personal quests of the scientists (who foresee Nobel prizes for the successful pioneers) and of the poignant case histories of the first patients to come forward as guinea pigs for the new therapies (some of whom are now living comparatively normal lives). The second half of the book looks at prospects for future developments in gene therapy, from the prevention of heart disease to the tailoring of drugs to attack tumors in specific locations. Lyon and Gorner also glance at the disturbing potential of genetically enhanced intelligence, and other cures suggestive of a revived science of eugenics, with all its ethical complexities. Well written, exhaustively researched, and filled with the human stories of the scientists, the doctors, and the patients whose only hope is this new field of medicine. (Kirkus Reviews)

Fast-paced, highly readable. . . . As engaging as any thriller, [it] brings to life the pathos, the excitement, and the drudgery inherent in this sort of research.

Starred Review. Well written, exhaustively researched, and filled with the human stories of the scientists, the doctors, and the patients whose only hope is this new field of medicine. -- Kirkus Reviews Starred Review. [An] epic, magnificent history. -- Publishers Weekly Engrossing... Detailed and fascinating. -- The New Yorker An important work. -- Library Journal Fast-paced, highly readable... As engaging as any thriller, [it] brings to life the pathos, the excitement, and the drudgery inherent in this sort of research. -- Philadelphia Inquirer

Author Information

Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner, recipients of the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in 1987 for the stories on which Altered Fates was based, write for the Chicago Tribune. They live in Chicago. Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner, recipients of the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in 1987 for the stories on which Altered Fates was based, write for the Chicago Tribune. They live in Chicago.

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