The Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease

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Alfredo G. Torres, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch

REVIEW

Author Hanan Polansky has added an excellent book that bridges the gap between a number of chronic diseases (traditionally believed to be unrelated), with a theory that elucidates the common mechanism underlying their origin. Microcompetition with Foreign DNA and the Origin of Chronic Disease was not quite as accessible as some other books that I have read, but it is certainly worth the extra effort even if much of the evidence found in the book requires additional reading from other bibliographic sources.

The text is very well-organized. The book spent a great deal of time on a series of technical notes that help the reader understand the basis of the theory. Even though this book is packed with mathematical equations, figures and graphs, the author clearly described their use throughout a series of biologically relevant situations. These technical notes are followed by a series of individual chapters dealing with a number of chronic diseases ranging from atherosclerosis, autoimmune disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, and obesity, where it's presented very clearly how microcompetition with foreign DNA causes these chronic diseases. Excellent diagrams enable the reader to understand complicated concepts. Dr. Polansky includes a long list of references, which provide support for the theory described.

The writer takes you through the basic knowledge of each chronic disease and the series of observations reported by multiple researchers in each particular field. Along the way, Dr. Polansky details the theory of microcompetition with foreign DNA, which tries to explain the fundamentals of these human diseases. Furthermore, a series of simple methods of treatment are described that are likely to be effective.

As I said, this particular work requires more effort than others I have read, and the enjoyment or aversion you have to math will play a role in how much pleasure this read will bring. However, even if the formulas leave you cold, the potential to explain the regulation of many genes and therefore the molecular basis of a wide range of important human diseases, are guaranteed to fascinate.

BIOGRAPHY

Alfredo G. Torres, PhD is an assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He was trained in the laboratories of Dr. Shelley Payne (UT Austin) and Dr. Jim Kaper (University of Maryland) where he became interested in pathogenic Escherichia coli. The main goal in Dr. Torres' laboratory is to understand the global mechanisms of colonization by E. coli O157:H7 and related pathogens during infection of the human intestine and determine the role that E. coli is playing in the development of inflammatory bowel disease.

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