Main description:

When I entered the field of allergy in the early 1970s, the standard textbook was a few hundred pages, and the specialty was so compact that texts were often authored entirely by a single individual and were never larger than one volume. Compare this with Allergy Frontiers: Epigenetics, Allergens, and Risk Factors, the present s- volume text with well over 150 contributors from throughout the world. This book captures the explosive growth of our specialty since the single-author textbooks referred to above. The unprecedented format of this work lies in its meticulous attention to detail yet comprehensive scope. For example, great detail is seen in manuscripts dealing with topics such as "Exosomes, naturally occurring minimal antigen presenting units" and "Neuropeptide S receptor 1 (NPSR1), an asthma susceptibility gene." The scope is exemplified by the unique approach to disease entities normally dealt with in a single chapter in most texts. For example, anaphylaxis, a topic usually confined to one chapter in most textbooks, is given five chapters in Allergy Frontiers. This approach allows the text to employ multiple contributors for a single topic, giving the reader the advantage of being introduced to more than one vi- point regarding a single disease.

Contents:

Functional Genomics and Proteomics in Allergy Research.- Bioinformatics in Allergy: A Powerful Tool Joining Science and Clinical Applications.- Engineering Allergy Vaccines: Approaches Towards Engineered Allergy Vaccines.- Reconstructing the Repertoire of Mite Allergens by Recombinant DNA Technology.- Immunostimulatory (CpG) DNA-Based Therapies for the Treatment of Allergic Disease.- Peptide-Based Therapeutic Vaccines for Allergic Diseases: Where Do We Stand?.- NKT Ligand Conjugated Immunotherapy.- Targeting Th2 Cells in Asthmatic Airways.- Transgenic Rice for Mucosal Vaccine and Immunotherapy.- Targeting STAT6 in Atopic Eczema/Dermatitis.- Mast Cell-Specific Genes as New Drug Targets.- Neuropeptide S Receptor 1: an Asthma Susceptibility Gene.- Probiotics in the Treatment of Asthma and Allergy.- Hypersensitivity Reactions to Nanomedicines: Causative Factors and Optimization of Design Parameters.- An Environmental Systems Biology Approach to the Study of Asthma.- Targeting Chemokine Receptors in Allergy.- Dendritic Cell Vaccines.- The Use of Microbes and Their Products in Allergy Prevention and Therapy.- Targeting Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I in Allergen-Induced Airway Inflammation and Remodeling.- Exosomes: Naturally Occurring Minimal Antigen-Presenting Units.