Animal models of diseases play a pivotal role in drug discovery and development, not only for proof of the concept studies of efficacy, PK/PD relationship but also for drug safety assessment. Since considerable differences in variables exist between animal models and human models (such as genetics, physiology, anatomy, gene expression, heterogeneity of disease conditions, etc.), not all the preclinical models are able to represent the pathophysiological conditions in human diseases. Therefore, partly due to the lack of congruency between animal and human disease models, several proposed therapeutic agents in the past decades have been demonstrated to be effective in preclinical models but failed in clinical studies. This e-book focuses on animal models of diseases from a translational perspective and highlights the key advantages and limitations of each model described to facilitate drug discovery and development. A unique feature of the volume is that it contains a selection of details disease models in various therapeutic niches with significant unmet medical needs, including inflammation, neurological diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and oncology. This e-book is, therefore, of considerable value to researchers and clinicians involved in drug discovery and development as well as pathology.

`Ricin Toxin’ brings together a collection of in depth and cutting edge reviews that focus on the current understanding of ricin toxins. This e-book provides a historical background, innovations in detection, identification and medical countermeasures against this biothreat, and the toxin’s previous use as an anti-cancer agent. This e-book answers various important questions such as detection of ricin in food or soil, making of humanized antibody against the toxin, novel approaches for the creation of a safe vaccine to protect first responders, exploitation of toxin`s ability to bind and penetrate cells for medical benefits, aftereffects of administering antibody against ricin to a first responder and their exposure to the toxin, neutralization of different ricin from different castor plant cultivars. Aside from learning key concepts that may be overlooked while scanning literature, the reader will benefit from gems of information scattered throughout the book. The book comprises of five different parts. The first part covers the background of ricin from pharaohs to bioterrorists and beyond. The second part covers the discovery of recent technologies which are very helpful for the detection of ricin in different matrices, followed by the detection of ricin in the sorption of soils, minerals,textiles, and food; soil inflatration and dust transport. The third part covers the ricin and castor plant cultivars. It also discusses the antibody therapies such as Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies and the extraction of ricin toxin from several cultivars of the Castor Plant (Ricinus communis). The fourth part of this e-book discusses different medical countermeasures which are very effective in enhancing the progress in the development of vaccines against ricin intoxication. This part also describes different methods employed for the improvement of anti-ricin antibodies. The last part of this book describes the replacement and different applications of the toxin. All chapters are written by paramount experts in ricin research. `Ricin Toxin’ is an essential reading to all medical students, biochemists and professionals involved in the field of toxicology.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing can be viewed as a supply chain which spans from the production and purchase of the starting and packaging materials through the manufacture of dosage forms until the safe reception of the finished product by the patient. The entire chain comprises of several processes: auditing, materials purchase (procurement), production, storage, distribution, quality control, and quality assurance. The quality standard for pharmaceutical production is ‘current good manufacturing practice (CGMP)’‘, which is applied within the frame of a pharmaceutical quality system (PQS). This implementation, however, requires a scientific approach and has to take into account several elements such as risk assessment, life cycle, patient protection, among other factors. Hence, pharmaceutical manufacturing is a complex subject in terms of regulation, given the technical and managerial requirements. This comprehensive handbook describes CGMP for new professionals who want to understand and apply the elements which build up pharmaceutical quality assurance. The book gives details about basic quality control requirements (such as risk management, quality hazards and management systems, documentation, clean environments, personnel training) and gives guidelines on regulatory aspects. This is an ideal handbook for undergraduates studying pharmaceutical or industrial manufacturing and supply chains as well for entrepreneurs and quality control professionals seeking to learn about CGMP standards and implementing quality assurance systems in the pharmaceutical sector.