This book deals with the emerging concept that certain pathogenic bacteria and viruses, when infecting people with cancer, actively fight tumors, allowing their regression. Although such observations go back more than 100 years, use of specific bacterial strains, or viruses, usually genetically modified with known anticancer drugs, and their protein/peptide products, has gained ground in recent years, allowing significant cancer regression in clinical trials with stage III/IV cancer patients or even in pediatric brain tumor patients, often without any demonstration of toxicity. It is composed of 12 chapters written by pioneers in microbial, biotech, and cancer research and covers the emerging roles of various microorganisms and their products in cancer therapy. The book highlights the benefits of using conventional cancer treatments (such as chemo- and radiotherapies) with microbial-based therapies. Such combinatorial therapies have gained particular attention as a strategy to overcome drug resistance, and the readers of the book will discover their impact on fundamental research and promising results from clinical trials.

This book integrates a science and business approach to provide an introduction and an insider view of intellectual property issues within the biotech industry, with case studies and examples from developing economy markets. Broad in scope, this book covers key principles in pharmaceutical, industrial, and agricultural biotechnology within four parts. Part 1 details the principles of intellectual property and biotechnology. Part 2 covers plant biotechnology, including biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, GM foods in sustainable agriculture, microbial biodiversity and bioprospecting for improving crop health and productivity, and production and regulatory requirements of biopesticides and biofertilizers. The third part describes recent advances in industrial biotechnology, such as DNA patenting, and commercial viability of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in genome editing. The final part describes intellectual property issues in drug discovery and development of personalized medicine, and vaccines in biodefence. This book is an ideal resource for all postgraduates and researchers working in any branch of biotechnology that requires an overview of the recent developments of intellectual property frameworks in the biotech sector.

The 1980 Supreme Court case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty was transformative for the biotechnology industry. It saw the Supreme Court allow Ananda Chakrabarty s patents on living organisms, and paved the way for commercial biotechnology. Decades later, Chakrabarty is still an active researcher, and he is now working to develop cancer therapeutics based on symbiotic bacteria. In Bugging Cancer, Chakrabarty and his colleagues at the Chicago Oncogroup have written a compelling dramatic thriller that portrays a fictional story based on this real-life work. Bugging Cancer is a fictional book, based on real scientific progress in using bacteria and bacterial proteins to attack malignant tumor cells. Scientific results are extended in a fictional way to describe the cancer-fighting power of an imaginary bacterial protein termed neelazin. The book also mirrors present-day issues, including international competition for scientific talent, issues in patent law, research ethics, and financing. Written by a team of seasoned scientific and business professionals, Bugging Cancer is sure to appeal to scientific researchers, patent attorneys, physicians, and any anyone else interested in healthcare and scientific innovation."