The New Healers explores one of the most important developments in human health in this century - the advent of molecular medicine. Molecular medicine is a natural outgrowth of the understanding we have gained through biochemistry and molecular genetics about how living systems function. Molecular medicine has already arrived in the clinic. Human proteins produced from human genes inserted into bacteria are being used to treat patients on a daily basis - insulin is just one example of many. Gene therapy involves replacing defective genes that cause disease, but can also be used to attack cancer and AIDS. Over 200 gene therapy trials are now underway. DNA taken from disease-causing microbes can now be used as potent new vaccines. The Human Genome Project will soon be completed; when it's done, we will know the sequence of every single gene underlying human health and illness. Molecular medicine will be a major part of our lives in the new millenium; it is essential that each of us come to understand what it is, what it can do for us, and what its limitations are. I think this book is an excellent place to begin.