Viral Nanotechnology

Viral Nanotechnology presents an up-to-date overview of the rapidly developing field of viral nanotechnology in the areas of immunology, virology, microbiology, chemistry, physics, and mathematical modeling. Its chapters are by leading researchers and practitioners, making it both a comprehensive and indispensable resource for study and research.

The field of viral nanotechnology is new and quickly expanding due to increasing demand of the applications already developed. The editors identify viral nanotechnology as a significant science that concerns itself with how to use the molecular modules that the distinctly different science of molecular engineering only constructs. The current potential applications of viral technology are manifold, with opportunities to revolutionize practices in photonics, catalysis, electronics, energy, biomedicine, health care, and public health.

This book emphasizes using viral nanotechnology to improve health. A special emphasis is placed upon using viral nanotechnology for developing vaccines. In addition, it documents viral nanotechnology's use as a powerful tool for developing drugs and genetic therapies. There is also great potential in its use as a means for diagnostics, including the development of diagnostic reagents and novel imaging technologies for detecting disease and infectious agents.

Viral nanotechnology's rapid and exciting growth is due to the need for new tools in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. The contributors to this volume approach each chapter with the hope that their research and practices will contribute to an improvement in health and life on an unprecedented scale in human history.

Yury Khudyakov, PhD, received his MS in genetics from Novosibirsk State University and his PhD in molecular biology from the D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Academy of Medical Sciences in Russia. He is chief of the Molecular Epidemiology and Bioinformatics Laboratory, Division of Viral Hepatitis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. He has published more than 170 research papers and book chapters, is an author of several issued and pending patents, and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Clinical Virology and academic editor for PlosOne.

Paul Pumpens graduated from the Chemical Department of the University of Latvia in 1970, received his PhD in molecular biology from the Latvian Academy of Sciences in Riga, and received his DSc from the Institute of Molecular Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He pioneered genetic engineering research in Latvia and was one of the first in the world to successfully clone the hepatitis B virus genome. He is an author of more than 300 scientific papers and issued or pending patents.