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Interferon 1981
Molrc~rlur Ir~~r~wwlogyVol. 20. No. 6, p. 695, 19X3 Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain.
BOOK Interferon
1981. Edited
REVIEW
by Ion Gresser.
Academic
This volume and its predecessors (Interferon 1979. 1980) have found a very worthwhile niche in the scientific Iiterature. Each volume contains about half a dozen very useful. personal reviews on a particular aspect of interferon research. The reviews are aimed to be sufficiently comprehensible to be of interest to the non-interferonologist but they also contain enough detail (scientific or personal,/historical) to also be of value to the specialist in the field. The choice of subjects for any one volume seems quite arbitrary, and the reviews vary greatly in length and breadth of coverage. but as the volumes accumulate they are turning into a very valuable and much needed interferon text. ‘Encyclopaedias that grow week by week’ are usually of little value to anyone but the publishers, but this series is a very promising and enjoyable exception to this rule. My only complaint is about the title. On the cover the volume is called ‘Interferon 3, 1981’. but on the title page ‘Interferon 1981’. Please standardise the name-- it is causing widespread confusion. The current volume contains a review by Lindenmann, who together with Isaacs in London in the late 1950s. discovered interferon. He describes here a strain of mice, discovered in 1961, containing an allele (Mx) that confers resistance to orthomyxovirus infection. The resistance is mediated by interferon. and Lindenmann speculates on the mechanism of the phenomenon. Epstein reviews work on
695
Press. London,
1981. f9.20.
IFN-7 up to 1981. anticipating the cloning and sequence determination of human IFN-7 genes. Saksela presents some new data as well as reviewing the relationship between interferon and natural killer cells. Other chapters cover the genetlc control of the interferon system (Slate and Ruddle), the mechanism of interferon action (Lengyel) and the clinical utilisation of human interferons (Morgan). The most memorable chapter (‘Cloning of Interferon and Other Mistakes’) is by Charles Weissmann. who reviews not only the brilliant and pioneering work carried out by him and his group on the cloning of interferon genes but also with the excitement of a good novel. the intertwined early history of the biotechnology company Biogen. But is this series of any use to a molecular immunologist? Few scientists can have failed to be intrigued by some aspect of the recent excitement in interferon. and whether it is the molecular biology of interferon genes. the actions of interferons on the immune system or the interaction between the business world and the Interferon scientists. this reasonably priced series will supply the answers.
DAVID S SECHER, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Hills Road. Cambridge CB2 2QH, U.K.
Biology.
BOOK Interferon
1981. Edited
REVIEW
by Ion Gresser.
Academic
This volume and its predecessors (Interferon 1979. 1980) have found a very worthwhile niche in the scientific Iiterature. Each volume contains about half a dozen very useful. personal reviews on a particular aspect of interferon research. The reviews are aimed to be sufficiently comprehensible to be of interest to the non-interferonologist but they also contain enough detail (scientific or personal,/historical) to also be of value to the specialist in the field. The choice of subjects for any one volume seems quite arbitrary, and the reviews vary greatly in length and breadth of coverage. but as the volumes accumulate they are turning into a very valuable and much needed interferon text. ‘Encyclopaedias that grow week by week’ are usually of little value to anyone but the publishers, but this series is a very promising and enjoyable exception to this rule. My only complaint is about the title. On the cover the volume is called ‘Interferon 3, 1981’. but on the title page ‘Interferon 1981’. Please standardise the name-- it is causing widespread confusion. The current volume contains a review by Lindenmann, who together with Isaacs in London in the late 1950s. discovered interferon. He describes here a strain of mice, discovered in 1961, containing an allele (Mx) that confers resistance to orthomyxovirus infection. The resistance is mediated by interferon. and Lindenmann speculates on the mechanism of the phenomenon. Epstein reviews work on
695
Press. London,
1981. f9.20.
IFN-7 up to 1981. anticipating the cloning and sequence determination of human IFN-7 genes. Saksela presents some new data as well as reviewing the relationship between interferon and natural killer cells. Other chapters cover the genetlc control of the interferon system (Slate and Ruddle), the mechanism of interferon action (Lengyel) and the clinical utilisation of human interferons (Morgan). The most memorable chapter (‘Cloning of Interferon and Other Mistakes’) is by Charles Weissmann. who reviews not only the brilliant and pioneering work carried out by him and his group on the cloning of interferon genes but also with the excitement of a good novel. the intertwined early history of the biotechnology company Biogen. But is this series of any use to a molecular immunologist? Few scientists can have failed to be intrigued by some aspect of the recent excitement in interferon. and whether it is the molecular biology of interferon genes. the actions of interferons on the immune system or the interaction between the business world and the Interferon scientists. this reasonably priced series will supply the answers.
DAVID S SECHER, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Hills Road. Cambridge CB2 2QH, U.K.
Biology.