What do you think?
Rate this book
The Lock and Key of Medicine: Monoclonal Antibodies and the Transformation of Healthcare
The untold story of monoclonal antibodies—the molecular heroes of biotechnology that revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of more than fifty major diseases
This book is the first to tell the extraordinary yet unheralded history of monoclonal antibodies. Often referred to as Mabs, they are unfamiliar to most nonscientists, yet these microscopic protein molecules are everywhere, quietly shaping our lives and healthcare. Discovered in the mid-1970s in the laboratory where Watson and Crick had earlier unveiled the structure of DNA, Mabs have radically changed understandings of the pathways of disease. They have enabled faster, cheaper, and more accurate clinical diagnostic testing on a vast scale. And they have played a fundamental role in pharmaceutical innovation, leading to such developments as recombinant interferon and insulin, and personalized drug therapies such as Herceptin. Today Mabs constitute six of the world’s top ten blockbuster drugs and make up a third of new introduced treatments.
Lara V. Marks recounts the risks and opposition that a daring handful of individuals faced while discovering and developing Mabs, and she addresses the related scientific, medical, technological, business, and social challenges that arose. She offers a saga of entrepreneurs whose persistence and creativity ultimately changed the healthcare landscape and brought untold relief to millions of patients. Even so, as Marks shows, controversies over Mabs remain, and she examines current debates over the costs and effectiveness of these innovative drugs.
This book is the first to tell the extraordinary yet unheralded history of monoclonal antibodies. Often referred to as Mabs, they are unfamiliar to most nonscientists, yet these microscopic protein molecules are everywhere, quietly shaping our lives and healthcare. Discovered in the mid-1970s in the laboratory where Watson and Crick had earlier unveiled the structure of DNA, Mabs have radically changed understandings of the pathways of disease. They have enabled faster, cheaper, and more accurate clinical diagnostic testing on a vast scale. And they have played a fundamental role in pharmaceutical innovation, leading to such developments as recombinant interferon and insulin, and personalized drug therapies such as Herceptin. Today Mabs constitute six of the world’s top ten blockbuster drugs and make up a third of new introduced treatments.
Lara V. Marks recounts the risks and opposition that a daring handful of individuals faced while discovering and developing Mabs, and she addresses the related scientific, medical, technological, business, and social challenges that arose. She offers a saga of entrepreneurs whose persistence and creativity ultimately changed the healthcare landscape and brought untold relief to millions of patients. Even so, as Marks shows, controversies over Mabs remain, and she examines current debates over the costs and effectiveness of these innovative drugs.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
344 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 2015
10 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 11, 2022
the book's title is a bit of an exaggeration if you think "lock and key" is figurative (medicine the lock... mabs the key!!!). lock and key refers quite literally to the specific binding of the antigen-binding site of an antibody to its antigen... much like an enzyme-subtrate complex. another lock, another key
this book shines good light on monoclonal antibodies, their discovery, and the refinement of their manufacture and use ever since. early chapters are good fuel for philo of science (all transitional science is, really. it's the lack of proper measurement techniques and equipment leading to contrasting theories and underdetermination that the philosopher loves), and techniques discussed in later chapters (transgenic animals, chimeric antibodies, grafted murine antigen-binding sites onto human antibodies) refract the scientific progress of the late 20th century that the book shows is really quite recent. like 30- to 40-year kind of recent, even if we study it in schools today.
complaints: i'm not really sure who the target audience of this book is. it's alternately pretty technical - in a way that felt like h3 bio - and (usefully, admittedly!) explicative... making it really quite niche. it is too high-brow scientifically for the casual reader and perhaps not meaty enough details-wise for the more scientifically inclined reader (i mean, tell me MORE about the immunology involved). the capitalist ideology that undergirds the FDA regulatory mechanisms and biotech pricing mechanisms; hell, biotech itself, is never really questioned too even if it's demonstrably ethically problematic (should science books be ambivalent about ethics? only if you believe ambivalence isn't in and of itself a possibly dangerous ethical stand; a little more weighing in would really have been appreciated).
things i liked: at moments Marks lets the human side of drug recipients shine through. these are very rare moments but they are illuminating: as quoted "patients' stories put a face on the disease [Crohn's - targeted by the monoclonal antibody, infliximab]... They were not statistical data—they were real people with faces." true enough it's the real people whom drugs affect who make drug development significant in the first place, because we might as well be playing checkers with plasmids and bioreactors if not. I would like to have seen a bit more of this: throughout the stories and lives Mabs affect are mostly implied through numbers and sales figures but the story Marks paints about the real importance of Mabs would have been so much more persuasively put across if the human dimension were put front and center. otherwise the science is sound and the writing good; it is perhaps a little faceless but one at least learns something one wouldn't otherwise have known. that's always a good thing
this book shines good light on monoclonal antibodies, their discovery, and the refinement of their manufacture and use ever since. early chapters are good fuel for philo of science (all transitional science is, really. it's the lack of proper measurement techniques and equipment leading to contrasting theories and underdetermination that the philosopher loves), and techniques discussed in later chapters (transgenic animals, chimeric antibodies, grafted murine antigen-binding sites onto human antibodies) refract the scientific progress of the late 20th century that the book shows is really quite recent. like 30- to 40-year kind of recent, even if we study it in schools today.
complaints: i'm not really sure who the target audience of this book is. it's alternately pretty technical - in a way that felt like h3 bio - and (usefully, admittedly!) explicative... making it really quite niche. it is too high-brow scientifically for the casual reader and perhaps not meaty enough details-wise for the more scientifically inclined reader (i mean, tell me MORE about the immunology involved). the capitalist ideology that undergirds the FDA regulatory mechanisms and biotech pricing mechanisms; hell, biotech itself, is never really questioned too even if it's demonstrably ethically problematic (should science books be ambivalent about ethics? only if you believe ambivalence isn't in and of itself a possibly dangerous ethical stand; a little more weighing in would really have been appreciated).
things i liked: at moments Marks lets the human side of drug recipients shine through. these are very rare moments but they are illuminating: as quoted "patients' stories put a face on the disease [Crohn's - targeted by the monoclonal antibody, infliximab]... They were not statistical data—they were real people with faces." true enough it's the real people whom drugs affect who make drug development significant in the first place, because we might as well be playing checkers with plasmids and bioreactors if not. I would like to have seen a bit more of this: throughout the stories and lives Mabs affect are mostly implied through numbers and sales figures but the story Marks paints about the real importance of Mabs would have been so much more persuasively put across if the human dimension were put front and center. otherwise the science is sound and the writing good; it is perhaps a little faceless but one at least learns something one wouldn't otherwise have known. that's always a good thing
March 25, 2017
There's a lot of interesting information in here, but the writing style just isn't my favorite. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the development and increased usage of monoclonal antibodies, but the chronological skipping around made it tougher to read, and tougher to keep track of the timeline, and which research led to what developments.
November 20, 2021
Interesting book on the history of monoclonal antibodies, both the scientific discoveries and medical applications. It presented the struggles of the scientists and biotech/pharma companies well. Only thing I wish were different is for it to delve more into the biology rather than glossing over it.
July 18, 2019
Not as detailed as I had hoped.
July 16, 2021
This is a helpful history of the development of this type of drug. It is a technical book that focuses on drug development over mechanism of action.
July 23, 2024
easily one of the best books on biotech i've ever read
Read
October 19, 2015362.1 M3466 2015
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews