MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
Book review: Invisible Frontiers
Paul Driscoll
This book describes, in rather a 'thriller' style, the origins of the exploitation of molecular biology methods for recombinant protein expression. No other book I know quite conveys the mixture of hard slog and excitement that the pursuit of a practical goal brings, at least not within a field so close to my own. On top of the 'eating pizza at the bench' aspect to the race to synthesize a human gene, the book describes the socio-political-scientific concerns that were around in the early 1980s about recombinant DNA and protein engineering. In rifling through the pages of the book again it is intriguing to recall how 'dangerous' some of the procedures that we now do routinely every day in category 1 or 2 laboratories were anticipated to be back then.
The book describes the early days of the pioneering biotech company Genentech and other aspects of the exploitation of cloning methods for therapeutic agents (specifically insulin). The book was very well received at the time it was published, but it may now come across as dated in its description of molecular biology methods: the phrase 'synthesizing a gene' does not have quite the same meaning as it would now, for example. That could perhaps increase the interest of the book to younger readers. It is unfortunately out-of-print now but secondhand copies are available through the usual channels.
Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene by Stephen S. Hall is published by Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987.
This essay was published in the Mill Hill Essays 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9546302-8-9
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