Judah Folkman: A Biography

By: Domenico Ribatti

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Synopsis: The aim if this book is to analyze the scientific biography of Judah Folkman, one of the most important scientist of the last century. More 50 years ago, Folkman found a revolutionary new way to think about cancer. Blood supply, Folkman hypothesized, was the key to tumor growth. Without new blood vessels, tumors simply did not thrive. In 1971, Folkman published his theory of angiogenesis in the “New England Journal of Medicine”. Angiogenesis, the formation and recruitment of new blood vessels, is necessary for tumor growth. Critics of the theory were silenced over time as Folkman and his colleagues reported the first purified angiogenic molecule, the first angiogenesis inhibitor and proposed the concept of angiogenic disease. The mechanism of angiogenesis is now a worldwide field of investigation. Over the years, Folkman and a growing team of researchers have isolated the proteins and unraveled the processes that regulate angiogenesis. Meanwhile, a new generation of angiogenesis research has emerged as well, widening the field into new areas of human disease and deepening it to examine the underlying biological processes responsible for those diseases.