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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 617.95
EAN num: 9781586482428
ISBN number: 1586482424
Label: PublicAffairs
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: May 24, 2005
Publishing house: PublicAffairs
Release Date: May 24, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 1518076
Studio: PublicAffairs
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Product Description:
Dr. David H. Sachs of the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital is not a household name, but within medical science, he is a giant. An immunologist and surgeon, Sachs has made significant contributions in the field of organ transplantation. But Sachs's real passion— and the possibility for a revolution in medicine—lays in xenotransplantation: using animal parts to treat sick people. 'Xeno' might save the lives of untold thousands. It could also lead to a multi-billion-dollar business.
Millions of dollars have been invested in Sachs's work in the hopes of staking a lucrative claim in the future of medicine. As The Xeno Chronicles begins, Sachs's decades of work and hopes have all converged on a genetically engineered, cloned pig named Goldie, whose organs have been designed not to be rejected by their recipients. Experiments begin but just as Sachs begins to get unprecedented results, he loses his biggest financial support and the collaboration of an important outside lab. He is almost sixty-two. Time and money are starting to run out.
G. Wayne Miller's absorbing, dramatic narrative account of a brilliant scientist's attempts to achieve a breakthrough offers an illuminating look into the minds, hearts, labs, and practical realities of those on the very forefront of medical science. Based on exclusive and unprecedented inside-the-lab access, The Xeno Chronicles clarifies both how science works and the ethical issues it raises through an absorbing human story and intimate portrait of Sachs, his colleagues, and patients.
Amazon.com Review:
For the 87,000 people on the waiting list for transplants in the United States alone, stem cell research leading to cloned human organs is a distant hope. Far more likely in the short run, at least according to its most passionate advocates, is xenotransplantation, or transplantation across species. Putting animal organs into humans may seem distasteful or even unethical, but in The Xeno Chronicles, G. Wayne Miller shows readers why it might be worth pursuing. The book follows the scientific trials and tribulations of Dr. David H. Sachs of the Harvard Medical School in his quest to successfully transplant into baboons the organs of a 'double-knockout' pig--cloned and genetically engineered so that its DNA lacks two copies of the gene that causes its cells to be rejected by other species. Over the course of the book, Miller follows the fate of pig #15502, known as Goldie. Considering her ultimate fate, it's odd that Miller goes out of his way to relate how cute and cuddly the pig is. 'Goldie passed a restful night and was happy and playful at breakfast that morning,' he writes, then proceeds to describe her quiet, surgical end.
Animal rights activists likely won't appreciate how kind and gentle the animal researchers are to their subjects, and Miller gives them their say in the book. A PETA member points out that if people didn't eat so much bacon, they wouldn't need pig hearts to keep themselves alive. Still, Miller points out that the majority of patients waiting for organs did nothing to bring on their disease, and they have little choice right now but to wait--and wait--and sometimes die waiting for human donor organs. In this light, it's hard not to root for Sachs's passion for getting xenotransplantation right in a constant race against time and the medical research bureaucracy. --Therese Littleton
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Rated by buyers 
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It seems like the more progress we make, the more we realize just how much we don't know.
Transplanting animal organs into people sure sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? It's been tried for decades with invariably disastrous results; the "Baby Fae" debacle, mentioned in this book, is by far the best known.
I'm deducting a star for the way the book seems to drop off a cliff, with a hint of propaganda.
OTOH, like other G. Wayne Miller books, it remains a good story with interesting and colorful characters.
Rated by buyers 
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G. Wayne Miller's The Xeno Chronicles: Two Years On The Frontier Of Medicine Inside Harvard's Transplant Research Lab focuses on Dr. David Sachs, a pioneer in immunology who has made many contributions in the field of organ transplants. His real passion lies in xenotransplantion: using animal parts to treat and replace human parts, and The Xeno Chronicles here examines his decades of work and the genetically engineered, cloned pig Goldie designed for organs which are not rejected by recipients. From limits of research money and time to moral and ethical concerns, The Xeno Chronicles does an excellent job of keeping a fast pace and a scientific eye on Dr. Sachs' promise and progress.
Rated by buyers -
G. Wayne Miller is a journalist with a keen interest in the personal and professional lives of medical pioneers, who are little known outside their field. His past books include King of Hearts and The Work of Human Hands, both of which recount the day to day experiences of pioneers in the field of surgery.
In The Xeno Chronicles, Miller documents the behind-the-scenes activities of Dr. David H. Sachs, a legend in transplantation research. Dr. Sachs is determined to advance the field of cross-species transplants, known as xeno-transplantation. Miller gained exclusive acess to Harvard's transplant research laboratory where Dr. Sachs and his colleagues endeavor to harvest genetically modified pig organs and transplant them into baboons as a very first step into animal-to-human transplants. With an ever increasing number of people needing organ and tissue transplants, and the immature promise of stem cell research, xeno-transplantation could be a saving grace for millions around the world. But Sachs's work, and the work of his counterparts, is being slowed down by politics, animal activism, and above all, financial constraints.
Miller does a wonderful job in not only focusing on the scientific work of Dr. Sachs, but also by touching-up on stories of animal activism and financial hardships experienced by animal research scientists. Patients who are desperately waiting for an organ believe that animals are the last chance they have at life, but activists think animals deserve the full respect bestowed on us humans and should not be used as spare body parts. This is why animal research scientists have become similar to undercover agents, proceeding through a plethora of security checks and biometric checkpoints to reach their labs. The corporate firms backing the research impose further restrictions on open scientific discussions, and many believe such restrictions slow down the progress of xeno-transplantation, if not all of medical research.
The Xeno Chronicles reads much like the latest best-seller novel, with complex characters, heroes applauded by some and criticized by others, and a sophisticated plot of secret research and political mongering. But this story is not fictional; it is in fact the real life drama of scientists on the fringe of medical greatness.
Scilitera.com
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