A contagious cause : the American hunt for cancer viruses and the rise of molecular medicine / Robin Wolfe Scheffler
By: Scheffler, Robin Wolfe [author].
Publisher: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, ©2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 379 p: illustrations ; 23 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780226458892; 022645889X; 9780226628370; 022662837X.Subject(s): Oncogenic viruses -- Research -- United States -- History | Cancer -- United States -- Etiology -- Research -- History | Virology -- Research -- United States -- History | Molecular biology -- United States -- HistoryGenre/Form: Print books.Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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On Shelf | QR372.O6 S34 2019 (Browse shelf) | Available | AU00000000015724 |
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QR364 .C73 2021 Viruses : the invisible enemy / | QR368 .O86 2022 Virology : essays for the living, the dead, and the small things in between / | QR372.O6 M67 2022 Cancer virus hunters : a history of tumor virology / | QR372.O6 S34 2019 A contagious cause : the American hunt for cancer viruses and the rise of molecular medicine / | QR387 .C48 2009 Clinical virology manual / | QR400.2.E68 C73 2014 Cancer virus : the story of Epstein-Barr Virus / | QR414.5 .S53 2018 Discovering retroviruses : beacons in the biosphere / |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-364) and index
Introduction: "an infectious disease, a virus" -- Cancer and contagion -- Cancer as a viral disease -- Policymakers and philanthropists define the cancer problem -- The biomedical settlement and the federalization of the cancer problem -- Managing the future at the Special Virus Leukemia Program -- Administrative objects and the infrastructure of cancer virus research -- Viruses as a central front in the war on cancer -- Molecular biology's resistance to the war on cancer -- The West Coast retrovirus rush and the discovery of oncogenes -- Momentum for molecular medicine -- Conclusion: afterlife, memory, and failure in biomedical research
Is cancer a contagious disease? In the late nineteenth century this idea, and attending efforts to identify a cancer "germ," inspired fear and ignited controversy. Yet speculation that cancer might be contagious also contained a kernel of hope that the strategies used against infectious diseases, especially vaccination, might be able to subdue this dread disease. Today, nearly one in six cancers are thought to have an infectious cause, but the path to that understanding was twisting and turbulent.A Contagious Cause is the first book to trace the century-long hunt for a human cancer virus in America, an effort whose scale exceeded that of the Human Genome Project. The government's campaign merged the worlds of molecular biology, public health, and military planning in the name of translating laboratory discoveries into useful medical therapies. However, its expansion into biomedical research sparked fierce conflict. Many biologists dismissed the suggestion that research should be planned and the idea of curing cancer by a vaccine or any other means as unrealistic, if not dangerous. Although the American hunt was ultimately fruitless, this effort nonetheless profoundly shaped our understanding of life at its most fundamental levels. A Contagious Cause links laboratory and legislature as has rarely been done before, creating a new chapter in the histories of science and American politics