RSC Books Blog

Now Published in the Issues in Toxicology Series

Hormone-Disruptive Chemical Contaminants in Food

Edited by Ingemar Pongratz and Linda Vikstrom Bergander

Today we are surrounded by a multitude of different chemicals that are essential components of our everyday life. As a consequence there are various hazardous substances like dioxins, phthalates and flame retardants circulating in the environment. These have an impact on ecosystems, wildlife and possibly human health. In recent years the phenomenon called endocrine disruption has raised considerable concern.

In this exemplary new book the authors discuss the scientific basis of this issue using epidemiological and experimental in vitro and in vivo data about chemicals targeting the hormonal systems. It also provides an up-to-date review of international initiatives including (high throughput screening, use of model organisms and in silico applications) aiming to screen, detect and functionally test these chemicals.

The authors are highly experienced academics and acknowledged experts with both multidisciplinary and international expertise. The book provides and in depth review of this current field of food safety research describing many of the ‘hot topics’ currently under debate.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849731898.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Pharmaceutical Salts and Co-crystals

Edited by Johan Wouters and Luc Quere

Multi-component crystalline materials have received renewed interest in recent years mainly due to their importance in the pharmaceutical industry. Indeed these multi-component crystalline forms influence relevant physico-chemical parameters such as solubility, dissolution rate, chemical and physical stability, melting point and hygroscopicity, which can result in solids with properties superior to those of the free drug.

Combining both reports of the latest academic research and a comprehensive overview of basic principles with applied contributions from selected experts in industry this book will be essential reading for pharmaceutical development scientists, researchers in crystal engineering and equally useful to the more seasoned expert and graduate student.

Key topics covered include:  fundamental aspects of salts and co-crystals; the role of fluorine in weak interactions in co-crystals; polymorph prediction of small organic molecules, co-crystals and salts; shape and polarity in co-crystal formation; the role of co-crystals in pharmaceutical development; solid forms and pharmacokinetics; the application  of mechanochemistry in the synthesis and discovery of new pharmaceutical forms; co-crystallization in solution and scale-up issues; analytical techniques and strategies for salt/co-crystal characterisation; co-crystal solubility and thermodynamic stability; phase diagrams in co-crystal search and preparation and  commercial opportunities and patent considerations.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849731584.asp

Now Published in the New Developments in NMR Series

Contemporary Computer-assisted Approaches to Molecular Structure Elucidation

Written by Mikhail Elyashberg, Antony Williams and Kirill Blinov

Computer-assisted structure elucidation (CASE) systems are a combination of software algorithms and tools to support and enable chemists and spectroscopists engaged in the process of molecular structure elucidation.

This exemplary new book describes the principles on which these expert systems are based and concisely explains the algorithmic concepts behind the programs. The authors use their own personal experiences in the development of the Structure Elucidator (StrucEluc) CASE software system to discuss the present state-of-the-art in computer-assisted structure elucidation.

The authors overall goal in writing this book is to produce the ‘must read’ definitive text that will represent the results of decades of work to develop CASE software systems. These are now powerful software tools commonly outperforming and correcting human interpretations of data. The book will also provide an historical perspective from the founding fathers of the technique and identify the challenges that have been overcome to produce modern CASE systems.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849734325.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Neglected Diseases and Drug Discovery

Edited by Michael J. Palmer and Timothy N.C. Wells

There are ~8 million deaths every year from neglected tropical diseases in the underdeveloped world, whilst drug discovery focus and practice is only recently taking on greater urgency and embracing the latest technologies. The aim of this book is to present a state-of-the-art review of drug discovery in respect of neglected tropical diseases and to highlight best practice to guide ongoing drug discovery effort, to raise awareness and promote debate in neglected disease areas that still have unmet medical need.

The book sets out to make a critical appraisal of ongoing research with a focus on the key science that has led to breakthroughs, especially from a medicinal chemistry perspective. It covers in great depth current efforts in the malaria, trypanosomatid, flavivirus and tuberculosis fields. Additionally there is further emphasis on the ‘neglected’ neglected diseases notably diarrhea, helminths, HIV and lower respiratory tract infections.

Written by a team of experienced experts the book will prove to be an invaluable guide to successful practice in neglected tropical diseases highlighting ongoing and new drug discovery efforts. It will aid both researchers and the general reader, by summarising the key learning to date and provide a clear overview of the challenges that still remain.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849731928.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Drug Design Strategies: Quantitative Approaches

Edited by David J. Livingstone and Andrew M. Davis

With the rapidly escalating costs of drug discovery and development together with spiralling delivery, quantitative approaches hold the promise of shifting the balance of success, to enable drug discovery to maintain its economic viability.  This exemplary new book will provide a useful summary of the current state-of-the-art in quantitative approaches to drug design and future opportunities. It will provide an inspiration to drug design practitioners to apply careful design, to make best use of the quantitative methods that are currently available, while continuing to improve them.

Key chapters include: the evolution of quantitative drug design; drug-like physicochemical properties; the development of QSAR and molecular modelling programs; the contribution of structure-based drug design; representing chemical structures in databases for drug design; modelling chemical structure-Log P; characterising chemical structure using physicochemical descriptors; assessing quantitative model quality and performance; the application of modelling techniques; the use of expert systems; ligand-based modelling of toxicity; ADMET predictions; the design of chemical libraries; the impact of genomics, systems biology and bioinformatics; scoring drug-receptor interactions and modelling chemicals in the environment.

The book will be essential reading for medicinal and computational chemists, and all those involved in drug discovery and development in the pharmaceutical industries.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849731669.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Kinase Drug Discovery

Edited by Richard A. Ward and Frederick W. Goldberg

Kinase drug discovery remains an area of significant interest across the pharmaceutical industry and academia. There are currently 13-FDA approved small molecule drugs and over 500 small molecules in active development targeting kinases. These agents have delivered significant benefits to patients that can be measured in life extension or improvement in the quality of life in diseases such as cancer and inflammation.

This exemplary new book will cover a broad range of themes on current ‘hot topics’ in kinase drug discovery. There will be discussion on how medicinal chemistry has been able to exploit this unique new target class, as well as reflections on the varied mechanisms of kinase inhibitors. Also addressed is resistance to kinase inhibition caused by amino acid mutations, non-protein kinases and applications beyond the human kinome into parasitic diseases. Modern approaches to finding kinase leads and reflections on how the field might progress over the coming years is also discussed.

The book will be essential reading for pharmaceutical scientists, biologists and medicinal chemists working in drug discovery and drug development.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849731744.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

New Horizons in Predictive Toxicology: Current Status and Application

Edited by Alan G.E. Wilson

The sophistication of modelling and simulation technologies have improved dramatically over the past decade and their application in toxicity prediction and risk assessment are of critical importance. The integration of predictive toxicology approaches will become increasingly important as industrial chemicals advance and change and as new pharmaceuticals enter the market.

In this comprehensive discussion of predictive toxicology and its applications, leading experts express their views on the technologies currently available and the potential for future developments. The book covers a wide range of topics including in silico, in vitro andin vivo approaches that are currently being used in the safety assessment of chemical substances. It reflects the growing and urgent need to strengthen and improve our ability to predict the safety and risks posed by industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals in humans. The reader will find extensive information on the use of current animal models, including genetically-modified ones and target-mediated toxicities, for various toxicities. Also discussed are the recent regulatory initiatives, to improve safety assessment of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals.

The book provides an expert and comprehensive discussion on the current status and future directions of predictive toxicology and its application in the life science industries.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849730518.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Biomedical Imaging: The Chemistry of Labels, Probes and Contrast Agents

Edited by Martin Braddock

The concept of medical imaging is one of the cornerstones of modern medicine. Although its origins can be found in 19th Century photography, the field only properly emerged in 1895 following W.C. Rontgen’s discovery of X-rays. Since then, insights from across physics and chemistry have devised many new modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical (including fluorescence), X-ray (including x-ray computed tomography, CT) and gamma imaging (including single photon emission computed tomography, SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET) and ultrasound techniques.

In this exemplary new book an expert team of authors present a review of some of the most important advances in recent years. The book starts with a comprehensive introduction to endogenous and exogenous contrast and then is broken down into four main parts. The first part discusses the development of radiotracers and radiopharmaceuticals as biomedical imaging tools and imaging agents for selected brain targets that are of both  clinical relevance and pharmacological interest. The second part focuses on the design and synthesis of contrast agents, MRI and X-ray modalities. Part three provides an extensive discussion on optical imaging techniques and the value of fluorescence optical imaging in pharmacological and drug development research.  The final section focuses on physical techniques and application, with a review of recent advances in brain imaging, that provide opportunities to develop biomarkers for diseases of the central nervous system and current progress and future prospects of using MRI to assist in the drug discovery and  drug development process.

The book will be essential reading for medicinal and physical scientists working in both industry and academia in the fields of chemistry, physics, radiology, biochemistry and the pharmaceutical sciences.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849730143.asp

Now Published

Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

Edited by Rolf Muller

“Few fields in atmospheric sciences have experienced such a stormy development as atmospheric chemistry. When I first entered the field some forty years ago it was still thought that stratospheric ozone was regulated by four reactions, (after Chapman, 1930) involving only the oxygen allotropes 0, 0₂ and 0_3.  We now know that a complete stratospheric reaction scheme contains more than a hundred reactions in the gas phase, the liquid phase and on the surface of particulate matter. These reactions involve chemical compounds, which have there orgins in human activities, such as anthropogenic nitrogen and halogen oxides. Together with dynamics and transport, they create a mix of processes which determine the observed distribution of stratospheric ozone.”  Paul J. Krutzen

Today, the activities of mankind have a greater effect on the composition of the atmosphere for a number of important trace species than emissions from natural sources; examples include sulphur dioxide and nitric oxides. Furthermore growing fossil-fuel consumption and agricultural activities have caused increases in green-house gases, in particular carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, leading to climate change on the timescale of decades to millennia.

In this exemplary new book, written by a distinguished team of international researchers, the authors present the scientific basis for understanding stratospheric ozone depletion and its interplay with climate change.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849730020.asp

Now Published in the RSC Drug Discovery Series

Proteinases as Drug Targets

Edited by Ben M. Dunn

This exemplary new book collects chapters from leading international scientists who are continuing the effort to identify new proteolytic enzymes that may serve as targets for drug discovery. In many cases, these enzymes are targets for new drug discovery in order to provide new therapeutic approaches to control human diseases and/or metabolic conditions. The chapters will help other investigators to pursue drug discovery by detailing methods of production and assay of the enzymes. In addition the latest structural studies that are described in the book will permit rapid advances in drug design. Topics covered include selective studies of the enzymes known as dipeptidyl peptidases, the role of the cysteine proteinase B in Alzheimer’s disease, kallakreins, key representatives of the metallo-peptidase family such as meprins and glutamate carboxypeptidases and  aspects of the proteins known as inactive serine proteases especially those from a significant human parasite.

The book will be essential reading for medicinal chemists, structural and chemical biologists, biological chemists and pharmaceutical scientists.

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2011/9781849730495.asp