Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases

The core of this three-volume book deals with damage-associated molecular patterns abbreviated “DAMPs”, which are unique molecules that save life and fight for survival of all organisms on this planet by triggering robust inflammatory/immune defense responses upon any injury, including those caused by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. However, these molecules also have a dark side: when produced in excess upon severe insults, they can trigger serious human diseases.

The three volumes present current understanding of the importance of DAMP-promoted immune responses in the etiopathogenesis of human diseases and explore how this understanding is impacting diagnosis, prognosis, and future treatment. This third volume addresses the potential of DAMPs in clinical practice, as therapeutic targets and therapeutics, by focusing on a description of antigen-related diseases, which are pathogenetically dominated by DAMPs, that is, infectious and autoimmune disorders and allograftrejection (as an undesired function of these molecules), as well as tumor rejection (as the desired function of these molecules).

The book is written for professionals from all medical and paramedical disciplines who are interested in the introduction of innovative data from modern inflammation and immunity research into clinical practice. In this sense, the book reflects an approach to translational medicine. The readership will include all practitioners and clinicians, in particular, ICU clinicians, infectiologists, microbiologists, virologists, hematologists, rheumatologists, diabetologists, neurologists, transplantologists, oncologists, and pharmacists.

Also available: Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases - Vol. 1: Injury-Induced Innate Immune Responses; Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases - Vol. 2: Danger Signals as Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Therapeutic Targets.

Walter G. Land is Professor Emeritus of the LMU University in Munich, Germany. After earning his MD, he spent four years specializing in Experimental Surgery, Immunology, and Organ Transplantation at the Institute for Surgical Research, LMU University, Munich. In 1979 he performed the first pancreas transplant in Germany at Klinikum Großhadern, where he subsequently spent almost 30 years as Head of the Transplantation Center. He also held a position as C3 Professor for Surgery and Transplantation Surgery in Munich for almost 20 years, until 2004. Currently, he is Emeritus Professor at LMU University Munich and Ancien Professeur Conventionné at the University of Strasbourg, France.

Professor Land is an Elected Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; also, he is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the European Academy of Tumor Immunology.

Professor Land has been a co-founder of many European and German Societies, including the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), European College of Organ Transplantation, the German Transplantation Society, the German Academy of Transplantation Medicine, and the Society of Innate Immunity.

Professor Land has chaired the European Society for Organ Transplantation, the Society of Transplantation and Innate Immunity, and the Society of Innate Immunity. He is the author or editor of many articles and books, was awarded the Erich Lexer Prize by the German Surgical Society in 1991, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1996, the Bavarian State Medal for Social Merit in 1997, the Millennium Medal of the Transplantation Society in 2000, and the Maharshi Sushruta Prize for Transplantation Biology in India in 2005.