The Origin and Development of Genetic Therapies
From Magic and Superstition to Molecular Genetics and the Human Genome
Published on 20. June 2025
216 pages
978-0-19-768999-8 (ISBN)
Description
From the discoveries of the principles of genetic inheritance in the 19th century to the development of the concepts of human molecular genetic disease in the 20th century, the treatment of human disease has been transformed from a focus on symptoms to the goal of correcting underlying genetic defects which are the cause of many human diseases. Here, Theodore Friedmann shows that this scientific revolution in medicine compares in importance to Copernicus's demonstration of the sun-centered order of the planetary system, the 18th and 19th century discoveries of the cellular structure of living systems, germ theory of disease, the invention of anaesthesia, and the discovery that genetic information is stored and transmitted by DNA.
The Origin and Development of Genetic Therapies explores the origins and early developmental history of the medical field of gene therapy. Friedmann examines the early failures and increasingly promising clinical "successes" for this new approach to cure genetic disease and explores how the concepts of gene therapy can affect human hereditary and human evolution.
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Theodore Friedmann
The Origin and Development of Genetic Therapies
From Magic and Superstition to Molecular Genetics and the Human Genome
Book
09/2025
OUP India
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Theodore Friedmann
The Origin and Development of Genetic Therapies
From Magic and Superstition to Molecular Genetics and the Human Genome
Book
08/2025
Oxford University Press Inc
€60.00
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Theodore Friedmann completed his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania, and clinical training in Pediatrics at the Boston Children's Hospital. He was awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Salk Institute. In 1971, he joined the pediatric faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego where he is currently affiliated as Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics.
Content
Introduction
1. Early Western concepts of disease and therapy
2. From Galen to the Renaissance - anatomy and the cell and germ theories
3. Darwin, Mendel, and Galton - the discovery, disappearance, and rediscovery of the laws of inheritance
4. The rediscovery of Mendel, Garrod, and human biochemical genetics
5. Mutations are inherited by Mendel's laws and can cause disease. What are chromosomes? What elements in chromosomes cause disease?
6. DNA Is the repository and transmitter of genetic information
7. From inborn errors to molecular disease
8. First faltering steps towards gene therapy - viruses as gene transfer vectors
9. Birth of molecular biology and recombinant DNA - the remarkable 1960s-1970s
10. Potential misstep becomes reality - the emergence of federal oversight and regulation
11. Oversight and regulation of recombinant DNA research -- the Asilomar Conferences
12. Chemical non-viral vectors
13. Genetics - from a descriptive to a manipulative science
14. Early clinical gene therapy trials
15. From academia to the bedside - the design of clinical trials
16. The Human Genome Project - a complement, but not the origin, of gene therapy
17. A third serious setback
18. Finally - break-through success?
19. Gene editing - a foundational new era for genetic therapies
20. RNA-based therapies and programmable RNA editing
21. The role of biotech and pharma in the development of gene therapy
22. Current dilemma and future directions
23. Summary: genetic therapies - a new field of medicine
