The Quest for the Cure
The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines
A REVEALING LOOK AT THE SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS STRIVING TO ANSWER ONE OF TODAY'S MOST URGENT QUESTIONS: HOW DO WE DEVELOP THE MEDICINES OF THE FUTURE?
After more than fifty years of blockbuster drug development, skeptics are beginning to fear we may be reaching the end of drug discovery to combat major diseases. In this engaging book, Brent Stockwell, a leading researcher in the exciting new science of chemical biology, describes this dilemma and the powerful techniques that may bring drug research into the twenty-first century.
Filled with absorbing stories of breakthroughs, the book begins with the scientific achievements of the twentieth century that led to today’s drug innovations. We learn how the invention of mustard gas in World War I led to early anticancer agents and how the efforts to decode the human genome might lead to new approaches in drug design. Stockwell then turns to the seemingly incurable diseases we face today, such as Alzheimer’s, many cancers, and others with no truly effective medicines, and describes cellular and molecular barriers thwarting scientists who use tools from traditional pharmaceutical research.
Scientists such as Stockwell are now developing methods to combat these complexities—technologies for constructing and testing millions of drug candidates, sophisticated computational modeling, and entirely new classes of drug molecules—all with an eye toward solving the most profound mysteries of living systems and finding cures for intractable diseases. If successful, these methods will unlock a vast terrain of untapped drug targets that could lead to a bounty of breakthrough medicines. Offering a rare, behind-the-scenes look at this cutting-edge research, The Quest for the Cure tells a thrilling story of science, persistence, and the quest underway to develop a new generation of cures.
BRENT R. STOCKWELL is an associate professor of biological sciences and chemistry at Columbia University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist.
“This is the best of science writing. Stockwell explains complex concepts veys facts and ideas that will be new even to professional scientists.”
—Solomon Snyder, John Hopkins University
$27.95t / £19.95 cloth 978-0-231-15212-9
$14.99t / £10.50 ebook 978-0-231-52552-7
All Rights: Columbia University Press