Bacterial Disease Mechanisms. An Introduction To Cellular Microbiology

Because of the rapid increase in antibiotic resistance, the past decade has seen an unprecedented increase in research into the mechanisms used by bacteria to cause human disease. This renaissance of bacteriological research has spawned a new scientific discipline, Cellular Microbiology, a fusion of Bacteriology, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, with major inputs from Structural Biology and Immunology. The result of this research - the subject of this textbook - is an awareness of the intimacy of the interactions that exist between bacteria and our own cells both in health and during infections. The central premise of this textbook is that both bacteria and their multicellular hosts have co-evolved molecular and cellular mechanisms to evade and overcome the offence/defence mechanisms of one another. This textbook describes, from the standpoint of human bacterial disease, the molecular and cellular interactions that occur between ourselves and the bacteria that live with us and introduces the reader to the latest techniques being used to unravel bacteria-host interactions. Bacterial Disease Mechanisms is a core textbook for students taking courses in Microbiology, Medical Microbiology, Biotechnology and Pathology and will be of interest to those taking courses in Biology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Medicine and Biochemistry.