This book has been written keeping in mind the needs of the Indian student and curriculum. The content is exhaustive and cannot be found in any single textbook, Indian or foreign. Its uniqueness is the packaging of the basic and the clinical aspects of immunology in a single book. The goal of creating this book is:
- To put forth the concepts involved in immunology in as simplified a manner as possible for the students whose first language is not English
- To reduce to the minimum, description of animal experiments so elegantly conducted to explain the several important concepts (This was intentionally done to avoid confusion amongst students who are not exposed to animal science—basically the book gives more weightage to human immunology)
- To include immunology of diseases commonly encountered in South-East Asian countries, so that students of medicine will grasp the basic complexities of the diseases they encounter
The book is thematically divided into two sections.
The first sixteen chapters deal with basic immunology. This part deals with development and maturation of cells of the immune system, molecular basis of diversity of immune response, movement of cells to the site of infection directed by soluble mediators, functions of effector cells and molecules, and careful control of harmful effects of activated immune effectors. Chapter 17 is entirely devoted to the principles of laboratory techniques used in immunology.
The second part, covered in ten chapters, deals with immune response to infectious and non-infectious diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, allergy (hypersensitivity) and diseases caused by mutations occurring during several developmental steps in the complex process of maturation of immune response, giving rise to immunodeficiency diseases. While dealing with the problems in the life-saving procedure of allogeneic transplantation, a special section is devoted to the development of new biologics such as engineered monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins, future applications of derivatized stem cells and other genetic engineering applications.