Synopsis

Immunology: A Short Course, Sixth Edition introduces all the critical topics of modern immunology in clear and succinct yet comprehensive fashion. The authors offer a uniquely balanced coverage of classical and contemporary approaches, basic and clinical aspects. As with the previous editions, the strength of the text is in a complete review of modern immunology without burdening the reader with excessive data or theoretical discussions. Each chapter is divided into short, self-contained units that address key topics illustrated by uniformly drawn, full-color illustrations, many brand new to this edition. The sixth edition of this successful textbook newly covers:

• Toll-like receptors, their ligands and intracellular activation pathways
• The key role of activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID) in somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination.
• The autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene in self-tolerance and autoimmunity
• T and B cell activation and the immunological synapse, as well as characterization and mechanisms of action of T regulatory cells

Praise for the previous edition:

"This book is clearly a precious resource for undergraduate, graduate and medical students alike… For those who need an introduction to the fascinating world of immunology, this book should most certainly spark the interest."
ANNALS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

"… an excellent beginner's guide… the authors have done a terrific job of providing an overview of the field."
YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Reviewer: Marion C. Cohen, PhD(SUNY Downstate Medical Center)
Description: This fifth edition of a basic textbook for students of immunology is based on the premise that less is more and focuses on what the authors believe is the essential need to know material for those new to the field. The previous edition was published in 2000.
Purpose: The purpose is to present a balanced and complete view of immunology that includes both basic scientific and clinical perspectives. The book has been written in a way that describes key topics without excessive detail or theoretical discussion. In this regard, it meets the needs of undergraduate and beginning graduate students as well as medical students and dental students. For the student who is overwhelmed by details in many courses, this is an excellent approach to learning basic concepts. The book meets the authors' objectives.
Audience: According to the authors, the book has been written for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. Dental students would also find it useful. The authors are authorities in the field and this fifth edition represents an evolution in presentation.
Features: The book covers all of the material one would expect to find in a textbook for a basic immunology course. A clinical case study accompanies many of the chapters and there are review questions that accompany each chapter. There is some information that is not always found in immunology texts. A section on neoplasias of the lymphoid system is included in the chapter on immunodeficiency diseases. The chapter on resistance and immunization to infectious diseases provides good information on passive and active immunization. The chapters on tolerance and autoimmunity have been combined, which better reflects how some of us are now teaching these topics. There is a Web site that is an additional resource where updates will appear. The figures and tables that appear in the fourth edition are available on the site, but most instructors would expect to have access to the figures in the current edition; while most of the figures are the same in the two editions, there are additions to the fifth edition. Moreover, there are slight changes in the order of the chapters which means that some of the figure numbers are not identical. Perhaps the authors felt this was a minor inconvenience, but when preparing lectures it is not.
Assessment: This is an excellent textbook. It is very readable and the figures are easy to understand. While it is not as detailed as some books, it contains more than a sufficient amount of information for a basic course. Because of changes in the field, the preparation of a new edition is quite justified.

Biography

Richard Coico is a professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the City University of New York Medical School. For the past eight years, he has directed the Microbiology and Immunology course taught to medical students, and also participates in the teaching of immunology to graduate students and physician assistant students at CUNY. He is a currently President of the Association of Medical School Microbiology and Immunology Chairs (AMSMIC) and he chairs the AMSMIC Education Committee. His research interests include genomic and proteomic studies aimed at defining epitopes expressed by several human pathogens that bind promiscuously to a variety of class I MHC alleles. His laboratory uses computational immunology (bioinformatic) approaches and database-building to investigate candidate epitopes and to create shared knowledgebases.

Geoffrey Sunshine is a Senior Scientist at the Health Effects Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he reviews research on the biologic effects of air pollutants. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine. For several years, he has directed a course in immunology for graduate dental students at Tufts University Dental School and previously directed a course for veterinary students at Tufts University Veterinary School. Hewas also a member of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University, doing research in antigen presentation and teaching immunology to medical, graduate, and undergraduate students.

Eli Benjamini is a professor emeritus of immunology in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at theSchool of Medicine of the University of California at Davis. Dr. Benjamini has taught immunology to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, as well as having served for 10 years as Chairman of the Graduate Program of Immunology on the Davis campus—a program that he was instrumental in forming. His research interests include the immunobiology of protein antigens, mechanisms of immune regulation, and principles of synthetic vaccine.