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processes, two of the dominant

Lecture notes
Animal Cell Culture Techniques
edited by Martin Clynes, Springer-Verlag, 1998. UK72.50 pbk (xiii 1 618
pages) ISBN 3 540 63008 2
This laboratory manual was not
only edited but also substantially
co-written by Martin Clynes. It
represents a worthwhile addition to
the several excellent laboratory
manuals already available describing
the cultivation of and cellular and
molecular methods for animal cell
culture.
The book is based on two
lecture and practical courses
sponsored by FEBS at Dublin City
University. Consequently, the
contents emphasize the major
strength of the course: an in-depth
look at various advanced and
specialized animal-cell-culture
techniques packaged in a
comprehensible fashion. The book
contains aspects that should appeal
to all professionals, whether
technical or academic, whether
trainee or experienced at working
in cell technology, or using cell
culture as a tool in other fields.
However, the book would have
benefited from more basic
protocols, which are particularly
useful to newcomers to cell culture.
The recipes and techniques are
well presented and easy to follow,
despite some differences in style and
approach between chapters. Each
chapter has an introduction
explaining the topic to be
addressed, and bench methods often
have their own introductions
explaining the reasons for different
actions. Thus, the reader is at no
time left wondering why a
particular action should be taken.
The range of topics covered in
this 618-page book is extensive and
techniques used in cell technology
and bioindustrial laboratories today.
Similarly, immortalization methods
to enable long-term proliferating
cultures to be established are not
covered. The chapter Analysis of
cell-cycle and cell-death mechanisms
includes some rare topics. The 33 describes basic flow-cytometric
chapters cover methods for basic cell techniques for monitoring and
culture and the analysis of cell analysing programmed cell death. It
proliferation and apoptosis, cell- does not, however, describe the
culture models for the examination analysis of reduced DNA
of cellular differentiation, in vitro stainability, a very simple, highly
sensitive and widely used method
for detecting apoptosis.
There are many useful pieces of
advice, troubleshooting guides and
relevant diagrams and plates. Little
tips like not substituting a salt
solution for water because doing so
would cause artefacts and a high
background (p. 44) are invaluable
practical tips, the sort that can make
or break a method new to a
laboratory. A very useful, but not
ubiquitous, practice is the inclusion
of the manufacturers or suppliers
and product codes for reagents.
In conclusion, I would
thoroughly recommend this book
to anyone with an interest in cell
culture. It provides a wide range of
specialized practical protocols in a
methods in toxicity testing, the readable, easy-to-follow, step-by-step
large-scale production of and up-to-date form.
biopharmaceuticals, and the genetic
manipulation of animal cells in
culture. Mohamed Al-Rubeai
Surprisingly, no protocols are School of Chemical Engineering, University
included on bioreactor kinetics or of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK B15 2TT.
the biological aspects of animal-cell (E-mail: m.al-rubeai@bham.ac.uk)
The authors of Safe biotechnology 9: values in risk assessment for the environ-
mental application of microorganisms (Trends Biotechnol. 17, 307311)
would like to apologise to all our readers for omitting Jean Marc Collard from
the list of Members of the Safety in Biotechnology Working Party, European
Federation of Biotechnology.

460 0167-7799/99/$ see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. TIBTECH NOVEMBER 1999 (VOL 17)