The book summarizes our progress in understanding the receptor and intracellular signaling mechanisms utilized by a family of proteins called the semaphorins. Originally these protein were identified as axon guidance cues important for the formation of nerve tracts but now it is realized that semaphorins subserve several distinct functions in a multitude of organ systems. The purpose of this book is to summarize our knowledge and make it available as a useful and comprehensive tool for the scientific community. This book will both be interesting for people working in the field as well as colleagues that work in other fields of science and would like to learn more about semaphorins and associated signaling mechanisms. All the latest techniques and results are summarized in this book which covers the entire semaphorin field from neurosciences to cardiovascular research and beyond. The strength of this book is that it gives a very comprehensive overview of all our knowledge of semaphorin biology and signaling and allows one to compare semaphorin functions between different biological systems.

The last decade, technical improvements will have changed the inventory of many research laboratories. New techniques and discoveries continuously give rise to observations that consequently result in the definition of new research objectives. In the past, research departments used to be clearly demarcated. Nowadays, technology that is shared by all lines of research stimulates convergence of research interests. This also applies to cardiovascular research. Vascular occlusive disease is now core business for researchers employed by cardiology, vascular surgery, vascular medicine, radiology, cell biology, chemistry, physiology and many more departments. Knowledge on actual research developments are shared by researchers with different skills.

It is sometimes difficult to acquire expertise when a researcher feels his experimental work could be improved by introducing a new research technique. In this book the investigator will find an overview of recent developments that are relevant for research in general but cardiovascular research in particular. Genomics, proteomics, micro-array, RNAi, stem cells and progenitor cells: just some phrases that became increasingly prevalent in literature the last couple of years and that are recognized by many, but fully understood by few. In this book experts in their research fields will share the most appreciated new developments and techniques in cardiovascular research. We hope that this book will help the reader, who is working in cardiovascular research, to understand and critically appreciate current research and that it will help improve the quality of the experimental work.

In the last decade, technical improvements have changed the inventory of many research laboratories. New techniques and discoveries continuously give rise to observations that result in the de?nition of new research objectives. In the past, - search departments were clearly demarcated. Nowadays, technology that is shared by all lines of research stimulates convergence of research interests. This also - plies to cardiovascular research. Vascular occlusive disease is now core business for researchers employed by cardiology, vascular surgery, vascular medicine, - diology, cell biology, chemistry, physiology, and many other areas. Knowledge on actual research development is shared by researchers with different skills. It is sometimes dif?cult to acquire expertise when a researcher feels his experimental work could be improved by introducing a new research technique. In this book, the investigator will ?nd an overview of recent developments that are relevant for research in general but cardiovascular research in particular. Genomics, p- teomics, microarray, RNAi, stem cells, and progenitor cells are just some phrases that have become increasingly prevalent in literature in the last few years and that are recognized by many, but are fully understood by few. In this book, experts share the most appreciated new developments and techniques in cardiovascular research. We hope that this book will help the reader who is working in the ?eld of cardiovascular research to understand and critically appreciate current research, and that it will help improve the quality of experimental work. Dr G.

This book details our progress in understanding the receptor and intracellular signaling mechanisms utilized by semaphorins. It covers the entire semaphorin field from neurosciences to cardiovascular research and beyond, detailing all the latest techniques and results. The comprehensive overview of semaphorin biology and signaling presented in this book allows one to compare semaphorin functions between different biological systems.