Biology for the Health Sciences (PDF)

Biology is central to our understanding of health and disease and to the development of effective treatments, and thus it is critical that health professionals have a solid grounding and knowledge comfort in the pathogenesis and mechanisms of disease processes. This innovative new textbook draws these topics together, providing an accessible introduction across four central disciplines - basic biology, biotechnology, non-infectious disease and infectious disease.

Key Features:

• Provides students of biology and those going into health care professions with a strong foundation to understand the pathogenesis of disease at the molecular and cellular level


• Focuses on the etiology and pathophysiology of the major human diseases by body system, including diabetes and nutritional disorders, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer, aligned to medicine and health science course structure


• Covers mechanisms of infectious disease transmission, as well as disease pathophysiology, and considers the impact of antibiotic resistance


• Reviews the applications of biotechnology and genomics to human health in diagnosis and treatment, as well as to our understanding of disease and disease surveillance


• Each chapter contains a mini glossary of key terms and associated definitions, and review questions allow students to assess how much of the chapter they have understood


• Digital resources accompany the textbook, such as interactive quizzes for students to engage with and figure slides of the book's illustrations that instructors can use in lectures

Enhanced throughout with plentiful illustrations, Biology for the Health Sciences is an essential companion for any student of the health sciences and for biological science students studying the causes of disease as part of a wider course.