Abstract

In an era of global warming knowledge of the effects of solar radiation on humans is of great importance and the latest discoveries in environmental photobiology are presented in this book. The Editor has brought together a wide range of world class contributors to provide the reader with information on the clinical effects of solar radiation, such as inflammation, pigmentation, immune-suppression, cancer and aging, with emphasis on the ethnic or genetic background. The book also offers updates on the biochemical mechanisms involved in the generation of damage to DNA, lipids and proteins and on their removal. Each chapter has been written to provide a "historical" description of the phenomenology followed by the description of the state of the art. In this way, non-specialized and specialised readers alike can be updated in the essential aspects of the field. Key topics include: - Damages from acute versus chronic sun exposure - Skin Color, Melanin, Race/Ethnicity and UV-Induced DNA Damage - The effects of solar radiation on the immune response in humans - Genetic background and UV-induced skin cancer - The photochemistry of indirect damages: Lipid and Protein Damage provoked by UV radiation - DNA repair therapy This title will become an indispensable resource for students and professional at all levels working in fields relating to photochemistry, environmental science, biochemistry and biotechnology.
Paolo U. Giacomoni received a Laurea in Atomic Physics from the University of Milano and a Ph. D. in Biochemistry from the University of Paris. He was a teacher at the University of Paris, and was a fellow scientist at University of California, San Diego, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and at the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg. He is Executive Director-R&D, at Clinique Laboratories, Inc. in Melville, N.Y He discovered that UV radiation elicits heat shock response and impairs energy metabolism in the epidermis. He worked on the pro-oxidative behavior of UVA radiation and discovered that DNA damage by UVA requires Oxygen and transition metals. As consequence, he proposed the now widely accepted micro-inflammatory model of skin aging and his laboratory was one of the twelve laboratories, which created the European Union-sponsored Network on Molecular Gerontology. He was among the founders of the European Society for Photobiology and was elected Secretary of the Society for two successive two-year terms.