A Contagious Cause : The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine / Robin Wolfe Scheffler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheffler, Robin Wolfe, Author.

Series:

Chicago scholarship online.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Oncogenic viruses--Research--United States--History.

Oncogenic viruses.

Cancer--Etiology--Research--United States--History.

Cancer.

Virology--Research--United States--History.

Virology.

Molecular biology--United States--History.

Molecular biology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Is cancer a contagious disease? In the late nineteenth century this idea, and attending efforts to identify a cancer "germ," inspired fear and ignited controversy. Yet speculation that cancer might be contagious also contained a kernel of hope that the strategies used against infectious diseases, especially vaccination, might be able to subdue this dread disease. Today, nearly one in six cancers are thought to have an infectious cause, but the path to that understanding was twisting and turbulent. ​ A Contagious Cause is the first book to trace the century-long hunt for a human cancer virus in America, an effort whose scale exceeded that of the Human Genome Project. The government's campaign merged the worlds of molecular biology, public health, and military planning in the name of translating laboratory discoveries into useful medical therapies. However, its expansion into biomedical research sparked fierce conflict. Many biologists dismissed the suggestion that research should be planned and the idea of curing cancer by a vaccine or any other means as unrealistic, if not dangerous. Although the American hunt was ultimately fruitless, this effort nonetheless profoundly shaped our understanding of life at its most fundamental levels. A Contagious Cause links laboratory and legislature as has rarely been done before, creating a new chapter in the histories of science and American politics.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acronyms

Introduction: "An Infectious Disease-A Virus"

Chapter 1. Cancer and Contagion

Chapter 2. Cancer as a Viral Disease

Chapter 3. Policymakers and Philanthropists Define the Cancer Problem

Chapter 4. The Biomedical Settlement and the Federalization of the Cancer Problem

Chapter 5. Managing the Future at the Special Virus Leukemia Program

Chapter 6. Administrative Objects and the Infrastructure of Cancer Virus Research

Chapter 7. Viruses as a Central Front in the War on Cancer

Chapter 8. Molecular Biology's Resistance to the War on Cancer

Chapter 9. The West Coast Retrovirus Rush and the Discovery of Oncogenes

Chapter 10. Momentum for Molecular Medicine

Conclusion: Afterlife, Memory, and Failure in Biomedical Research

Time Line

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Bibliography

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226628400

022662840X

OCLC:

1091029280