Morphoregulatory Molecules

by Gerald M. Edelman (Editor), Jean-Paul Thiery (Editor), Bruce A. Cunningham (Editor)

Presents recent research efforts in the genetic basis of pattern formation and morphogenesis, especially the expression of adhesion molecules. Reviews our understanding of the structure, function, and genetic control of the three families of molecules involved in cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), substrate adhesion molecules (SAMs), and cell junctional molecules (CJMs). Covers the biology and chemistry of CAMs, structure and interaction of SAMs, components of junctional complexes, function in histogenesis and disease, and morphology and development.

648 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Gerald Maurice Edelman (born July 1, 1929) is an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system.[1] Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules.[2] In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.