Protein kinases are fascinating enzymes that maintain the proper function of nearly every task performed by the cells of the human body. By extracting a phosphate from the energy molecule ATP and linking it to another protein, protein kinases alter the structure and ultimate function of other proteins. In this way, protein kinases help monitor the extracellular environment and integrate signaling cues that, for the most part, are beneficial for human health and survival. However, protein kinases are often dysregulated and responsible for the initiation and progression of many types of cancers, inflammatory disorders, and other diseases. Thus, decades of research have revealed much about how protein kinases are regulated and approaches to inhibit these enzymes to treat disease. However, nearly 30 years since the identification of the first clinically beneficial small molecule protein kinase inhibitor, there are only a few examples where these drugs provide sustained and durable patient responses. The goal of this book is to provide biomedical scientists, graduate, and professional degree students insight into different approaches using small molecules to block specific protein kinase functions that promote disease.

Paul Shapiro gives you a “captivating” (John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market) front-row seat for the race to create and commercialize cleaner, safer, sustainable meat—real meat—without the animals.

Since the dawn of Homo sapiens some quarter million years ago, animals have satiated our species’ desire for meat. But with a growing global popula­tion and demand for meat, eggs, dairy, leather, and more, raising such massive numbers of farm animals is woefully inefficient and takes an enormous toll on the planet, public health, and certainly the animals themselves.

But what if we could have our meat and eat it, too? The next great scientific revolution is underway—“a future where the cellular agricultural revolution helps lower rates of foodborne illness, greatly improves environmental sustainability, and allows us to continue to enjoy the food we love” (Kathleen Sebelius, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services).

Enter clean meat—real, actual meat grown (or brewed!) from animal cells—as well as other clean foods that ditch animal cells altogether and are simply built from the molecule up. Whereas our ancestors domesticated wild animals into livestock, today we’re beginning to domesticate their cells, leaving the animals out of the equation. From one single cell of a cow, you could feed an entire village. And “in this important book that could just save your life” (Michael Greger, MD, author of How Not to Die), the story of this coming second domestica­tion is anything but tame.

Protein kinases are fascinating enzymes that maintain the proper function of nearly every task performed by the cells of the human body. By extracting a phosphate from the energy molecule ATP and linking it to another protein, protein kinases alter the structure and ultimate function of other proteins. In this way, protein kinases help monitor the extracellular environment and integrate signaling cues that, for the most part, are beneficial for human health and survival. However, protein kinases are often dysregulated and responsible for the initiation and progression of many types of cancers, inflammatory disorders, and other diseases. Thus, decades of research have revealed much about how protein kinases are regulated and approaches to inhibit these enzymes to treat disease. However, nearly 30 years since the identification of the first clinically beneficial small molecule protein kinase inhibitor, there are only a few examples where these drugs provide sustained and durable patient responses. The goal of this book is to provide biomedical scientists, graduate, and professional degree students insight into different approaches using small molecules to block specific protein kinase functions that promote disease.