Product Description
Positioned at the cutting edge of science, Cell of Cells charts the international race to utilize the stem cell.

From a lab in the Sahara, where one problem is sand in the petri dishes, to an Israeli lab that narrowly escapes a terrorist bomb, stem cells have gone global. Not only are the cells studied in an escalating number of labs—and lands—but they are already being used. In Japan, a respected doctor uses the cells to make small women better endowed. In Connecticut, stem cell technology has created cloned cows that roam the hills displaying eerily identical personalities. In Texas, stem cells rejuvenate dying hearts. In China, clinics offer stem cells to patients suffering from everything from paralysis to brain trauma.

In elegant, cogent prose, science journalist Cynthia Fox has illuminated the reality and promise of stem cell therapies. Cell of Cells illustrates how the extensive, fervent experimentation currently under way is causing a revolution, both in the body and in the international body politic.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)

An exciting book on stem cells

A tell tale book recounting the most recent advances in stem cell treatments, focusing on advances that have been in translational research in the last 5 years.

Stem cell biology, arguably only a few decades old, has been gaining more steam in the research and clinical comminuties, with good reason. Much of the regenerative capabilities of both adult and embryonic (and more recently induced Pluripotent, or iPS) stem cells has allowed for new treatments for neurodegenrative disease, post cardiac arrest damage, and other diseases in which replenished cells are necessary. Cynthia Fox does a great job in taking the reader through the major centers of embyronic stem cell research (Egypt, Israel, South Korea, China, and a little in the United States) as well as those labs and clinics involved in adult stem cell therapies. In what is both an in depth look at the researchers AND the patients lives, along with the science taking place, the reader takes away the real sense of what can be done and is being done through stem cell research and therapies.
August 01, 2008

a stem cell travelogue

There have been a number of books about stem cells. Some take a dry scientific approach, others have focused on the political-religious-legislative battles within the United States and how those disputes have forced research abroad.

This book, with its emphasis on places and personalities, breaks new ground as a science writer's travelogue. Cynthia Fox spent years jetting around the world, interviewing scientists, touring labs, and documenting discoveries while charting the social and geopolitical forces affecting the stem cell race. You feel what it's like to work in a lab. You can also feel the tensions, which is what ultimately makes this book a good read.

Fox had a riveting ringside seat to the famous Korean scandal. But there's much more here; one online reviewer called this an 'essential handicapper's guide', and it proves to be richly rewarding for the details on at least a half dozen other labs around the world, as well as on the proliferating third world quack clinics (which merit a whole chapter). At first I wondered about Fox's use of the frame narratives and cultural sketches, wondering if they were, strictly speaking, necessary; within fifty pages, however, I was won over by Fox's sense of balance and genuine grasp of the scientific challenges. She understands the range of the field. She definitely did her homework.

An impressive work of observation, Cell of Cells is a gentle introduction to a difficult subject, and a must-own for anyone working in the stem cell field. Cynthia Fox definitely caught the mood and atmosphere of the times.
July 09, 2007

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