Taming the Autoimmune Beast:The Story of a Wegener?s Survivor - Softcover

Horuk, Dr Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1491267526 ISBN 13: 9781491267523

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Wegener’s Granulomatosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune defenses of the body, that usually protect against a pathogenic attack, turn rogue and induce a severe inflammation of the small blood vessels. It can be a devastating and lethal disease depending on which of the body’s tissues and organs it affects. This book draws upon the personal experience of the author, who is a scientist, in fighting and eventually overcoming this disease. The book describes the pathophysiology, the potential cause, and the treatment of this disease in simple to understand laymen's terms. The book is written for sufferers of Wegener's so that they might derive some comfort and inspiration in coping with and hopefully overcoming this dreadful and sometimes frightening disease.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Horuk obtained a Ph. D. degree in Biochemistry from the department of crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London in 1980. He moved to the USA in 1981 and carried out postdoctoral studies in insulin action at the NIH and at the University of California San Diego. In 1986 he joined the Dupont Company where he developed his interest in immunology and carried out research on the interleukin 1 receptor. In 1991 Dr Horuk joined Genentech in the department of protein chemistry where he started a research program on immune mediators known as chemokines . He was the first to discover that the Duffy Antigen, a portal of entry for the malarial parasite Plasmodium vivax, was also a chemokine receptor. These findings were the first demonstration that G-protein coupled receptors could act as vehicles of entry for pathogens and set the stage for findings that showed that chemokine receptors were HIV-1 coreceptors. Dr Horuk joined Berlex BioSciences in the department of immunology in 1994 and worked on strategies to treat the disease multiple sclerosis. He successfully developed a program of research that was tested in phase II human clinical studies. In 2007 the Berlex site was closed and Dr Horuk is currently teaching Pharmacology and drug discovery part time at the University of California Davis.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1491267526
• ISBN 13: 9781491267523
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 74