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A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine
by Ben Stanger
Inside the quest to unlock the mysteries of development - and find the key to transforming our future.
Each of us began life as a single cell. From this humble origin, we embarked on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster. Yet, amazingly, we reached our destination intact, emerging as dazzlingly complex, exquisitely engineered assemblages of trillions of cells. This metamorphosis constitutes one of nature's most spectacular yet commonplace magic tricks―and one of its most coveted secrets. In From One Cell, physician and researcher Ben Stanger offers a breathtaking glimpse into what scientists are discovering about how life and the body take shape, and how these revelations stand to revolutionize medicine and the future of human health.
In vivid prose, Stanger leads readers on a gripping odyssey retracing this universal, yet unremembered, rite of passage. Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling development's riddles in experiments as painstaking as they are inventive, we confront fascinating puzzles: how does the plethora of different tissues that compose our bodies arise from a single source? How do cells know what they are meant to become―skin or bone, blood or muscle―when all carry the same set of genetic instructions? Once a cell starts developing down one path, can it change its mind, or is its destiny irrevocably sealed?
As Stanger shows us, the answers to these questions may at last empower us to solve some of our most persistently confounding medical challenges, from cancer to cognitive decline to degenerative disease. Recognizing tumors as evil doppelgangers of the embryo points the way toward new, more targeted cancer therapies. Learning how cells choose their identities and find their way in space could unlock lifesaving breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. The possibilities are extraordinary.
Popular science at its best, From One Cell celebrates the power and beauty of understanding our collective beginnings.
"[S]uperb...The scientific explanations are enlightening and related with helpful analogies...showcasing the surprising and impressive abilities of cells. Readers will marvel at this stimulating and comprehensive deep dive." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Cell research has the potential to unlock a new generation of treatments, according to a leader in the field...Due to the subject matter, parts of the book are complex and require a close reading, but there is a useful glossary of terms, and Stanger does his best to avoid jargon. Ultimately, the author delivers an informative package of how this field of medicine has developed and where it might be going. An authoritative account of a critical area of medical research and the promises it holds." —Kirkus Reviews
"Fascinating from beginning to end, Ben Stanger's From One Cell takes us through the most important journey in all of our lives. Stanger is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide through the science that will impact our lives in the future." ―Neil Shubin, paleontologist and author of Your Inner Fish
"From the scientific quest to understand how a minuscule fertilized egg becomes a whole person, a universe of human biology opens up, leading to big new ideas for medicine. An inspiring, masterful, and authoritative account of this vital scientific frontier―rendered in brilliant, beautiful prose―From One Cell is about you, your beginning, and your future." ―Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Secret Body
"Showing the erudition and leaps of imagination of a writer who is deeply immersed in both scientific research and the rich history of human culture, From One Cell is a pleasure to read―elegant, accessible, and endlessly exciting." ―Robert A. Weinberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of The Biology of Cancer
This information about From One Cell was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ben Stanger is the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research and a professor of medicine and cell and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a practicing gastroenterologist with Penn Medicine. He lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
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