Harnessing Your Body’s Natural Defences

The Beautiful Cure

The New Science of Human Health

A leading expert introduces the revolutionary new science of the immune system with its break-through medical cures and discusses how stress, sleep and ageing affect our health.

Thrilling ... An eye-opening tour de force of scientific writing that reads like the best kind of adventure story

One of the best accounts I have yet come across of the nature of biological science … Daniel Davis’s wonderful book recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how research into the immune system has resulted in a health revolution

Thoroughly absorbing ... Davis is a wonderful storyteller

Terrific ... Davis relates the extraordinary modern developments in supercharging the body’s own immune system to fight disease, and one day maybe even eliminate cancer

Thrilling … Do not underestimate the importance of immunology. This field relates to you personally

An inspirational book that not only reveals the secret joys of scientific discovery but is jam-packed full of revelations for non-scientists

Forget AI, robotics, the internet of things. This is where the future feels strange and exciting: in the 'inner universe' of our immune system, and in the radically new therapies that are using it to conquer disease

Highly readable, beautifully researched, backed up with notes, references and interviews by Davis himself, whose status as an immunology professor confers added credibility. He believes that we now know enough about the major components and interactions of the immune system to begin manipulating them to cure diseases such as cancer. We stand, he predicts, on the threshold of a medical revolution

A sweeping tour d’horizon … lucid and entertaining … Much as Siddhartha Mukherjee did in his book The Gene, Davis expertly weaves together human stories and scientific endeavour

New ways to treat cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other age-related diseases … Davis is a sure and engaging guide to these developments

A terrific book by a consummate storyteller and scientific expert

Gives extraordinary new details of an ancient remedy that is already more marvellous, powerful and flexible than any medicine to come out of a lab

The human body is the most complicated assemblage of chemicals in the known universe. It's a huge scientific challenge to understand how we metabolise, how we acquire immunity, and how drugs work. Daniel Davis is a distinguished expert in this field – and he's a fine writer too. He portrays vividly how great discoveries emerge – via prolonged  effort, via cooperation and competition, and sometime sheer luck. This gripping book gives an authentic flavour of how science is actually done – and why it's important for humanity's future

This book is an insight into new, remarkable and almost unnoticed advances in immunology and shows how medicine is moving on from the world of the gene to the world of the antibody

Any reader completely unfamiliar with the workings of the immune system is likely to be dumbstruck with admiration for its intricacy ... Davis's book is full of enlivening little anecdotes

[The Beautiful Cure] offers fresh perspectives on future research strategies

We all think we know how the immune system works, roughly. This exciting and elegant book on new discoveries shows how wrong we were

An excellent book on our immune system. His lucid prose lets the science speak for itself, and it beautifully illuminates one of the most exciting frontiers of modern medicine

Engaging and lucid... [There is] a compelling human story of the researchers who made the discoveries. The author has gone to great lengths to interview the key players in the story

Daniel M. Davis is Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester. His research, using super-resolution microscopy to study immune cell biology, was listed in Discover magazine as one of the top 100 breakthroughs of the year. His previous book, The Compatibility Gene, was longlisted for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Science Book Prize, shortlisted for the Society of Biology Book Prize and described by Bill Bryson in the Guardian’s Books of the Year as ‘elegantly written and unexpectedly gripping’. He is also the author of over 120 academic papers, collectively cited over 10,000 times, including articles in Nature, Science and Scientific American.

Understand how our immune system fights disease and enables the body to heal itself. 
 
'Thrilling... Reads like the best kind of adventure story' STEPHEN FRY 
'Excellent' TIM SPECTOR, Sunday Times bestselling author of Spoon-Fed 
 
 Here, Professor Daniel Davis charts the groundbreaking scientific quest to understand how it fights disease and enables the body to heal itself. He explains how it is affected by stress, sleep, age and our state of mind, and reveals how all of this knowledge is now unlocking a revolutionary approach to medicine and well-being. 
 
 The Beautiful Cure tells a dramatic story of detective work and discovery, of puzzles solved and of the mysteries that remain, and of lives sacrificed and saved. 
 
 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 
 
 'Wonderful... recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how research into the immune system has resulted in a health revolution' HENRY MARSH 
 
 'Thoroughly absorbing... Davis is a wonderful storyteller' BILL BRYSON

The Compatibility Gene

Short-listed for the Society of Biology Book Award 2014 
Long-listed for the Royal Society Winton prize for science books 2014 
 
In The Compatibility Gene, leading scientist Daniel M Davis tells the story of the crucial genes that define our relationships, our health and our individuality. 
 
We each possess a similar set of around 25,000 human genes. Yet a tiny, distinctive cluster of these genes plays a disproportionately large part in how our bodies work. These few genes, argues Davis, hold the key to who we are as individuals and our relationship to the world: how we combat disease, how our brains are wired, how attractive we are, even how likely we are to reproduce. 
 
The Compatibility Gene follows the remarkable history of these genes' discovery. From the British scientific pioneers who struggled to understand the mysteries of transplants to the Swiss zoologist who devised a new method of assessing potential couples' compatibility based on the smell of worn T-shirts, Davis traces a true scientific revolution in our understanding of the human body: a global adventure spanning some sixty years. 
 
'Unusual results, astonishing implications and ethical dilemmas' The Times 
 
'Packed with an insider's knowledge' New York Times 
 
'He makes immunology as fascinating to popular science readers as cosmology, consciousness, and evolution' Steven Pinker 
 
'An elegantly written, unexpectedly gripping account' Bill Bryson Guardian, Books of the Year 
 
Daniel M Davis is director of research at the University of Manchester's Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research and a visiting professor at Imperial College, London. He has published over 100 academic articles, including papers in Nature and Science, and Scientific American. He has won the Oxford University Press Science Writing Prize and given numerous interviews for national and international media. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2011.

Who am I? What makes me different from everyone else? Daniel Davis recounts the remarkable science that has answered one version of these questions

Ostensibly about a set of genes that we all have and need, this book is really about the men and women who discovered them and worked out what they do.  It's a search for the essence of scientific greatness by a scientist who is headed that way himself

The Compatibility Gene cuts through the complexity to reveal the startling truth about perhaps the most important section of the molecule that defines what it means to be human

Steve Jones, author of 'Almost Like A Whale'

Davis weaves a warm biographical thread through his tale of scientific discovery, revealing the drive and passion of those in the vanguard of research

Davis makes the twists and turns all count

Davis ranges energetically through the research. Cultural references and anecdotes abound

The genes that make you a true individual ... Davis provides a well-written and easy-to-read account of the sometimes complicated biology behind the crucial genes that affect our lives so profoundly

Wonderful pen-portraits of the many scientists involved in this fast-moving field ... 5 out of 5 stars

Dr. Davis's readable and informative book takes the reader into unexpectedly interesting corners of both the immune system and the lives of immunologists. It is packed with an insider's knowledge - not just of the field, but of where its bodies are buried

An elegantly written, unexpectedly gripping account of how scientists painstakingly unravelled the way in which a small group of genes ... crucially influence, and unexpectedly interconnect, various aspects of our lives... Lab work has rarely been made to seem more interesting or heroic

Daniel M. Davis is director of research at the University of Manchester's Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research and a visiting professor at Imperial College, London. He has published over 100 academic papers, including papers in Nature and Science, and Scientific American, and lectures all over the world, including at the Royal Institution. He has previously won the Oxford University Press Science Writing Prize, and has given numerous interviews for national and international media, including The Times, Guardian, Metro, and National Public Radio (USA). A major feature on his research was published in The Times. Experiments filmed in his laboratory were shown in the BBC series 'The History of Medicine' (2008).

A tiny cluster of our genes holds the key to how we combat disease, how our brains are wired, how attractive we are, even how likely we are to reproduce. In The Compatibility Gene, one of our foremost immunologists tells the remarkable history of these genes' discovery and the unlocking of their secrets. Davis shows how the compatibility gene is radically transforming our knowledge of the way our bodies work - and is having profound consequences for medical research and ethics. Looking to the future, he considers the startling possibilities of what these wondrous discoveries might mean for you and me.

A Myth-busting Guide to Immune Health

Self Defence

We are surrounded by big claims for how to enhance our immunity. But the one thing the science is clear on is that everyone's immune system is entirely unique. So how do we tell the myths from the facts? And is there anything we can actually do to benefit our immune health? 
 
World-leading immunologist Daniel M. Davis has the answers in this truly authoritative and highly accessible, myth-busting guide to the effects of stress, age, exercise, weight, nutrition, sleep and mental health on our immune health. His book equips the reader to spot the bogus claims made for diets and supplements and make informed choices about everything from nutrition and exercise regimes to cancer therapies and the vaccines of the future. 
 
Above all Davis urges us to be wary of one-size-fits-all 'cures' and punctures some key misunderstandings. We learn how exercise, for example, has all sorts of different, even opposing, short- and long-term effects on our immune health. And while our gut microbes are vitally important, it's unlikely that yoghurt drinks are the answer. Nor will orange juice prevent that cold. 
 
But much is now known and genuine opportunities do now exist to enhance our immune health. Self Defence is the indispensable guide to navigating these opportunities as well as some astonishing possibilities for the future.

A brilliant deep-dive into the latest discoveries of human health. An inspiration!

A perfect blend of cutting-edge science and compelling storytelling. Daniel Davis has a rare knack for making complex science comprehensible and thrilling

As David Attenborough opens our goggling eyes to the natural world without, so Daniel Davis brings us face to face with the stunningly clever and, yes, beautiful world within ... One of those books that makes you look at everything human in a new, challenging and thrilling way

One of the best accounts I have yet come across of the nature of biological science and discovery

Daniel M. Davis is Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London. His previous books include The Beautiful Cure: The New Science of Human Health, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2018, and The Secret Body: How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live, which was described variously as 'an inspiration' by Tim Spector, 'beautifully rendered' by Brian Cox and 'masterful' by Alice Roberts. Davis's research, using super-resolution microscopy to study immune cell biology, was listed in Discover magazine as one of the Top 100 breakthroughs of the year. He has published over 150 academic research papers, including articles in Nature, Science, New Scientist and Scientific American.

Daniel M Davis

How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live

'Thrilling' BILL BRYSON 
'Brilliant' TIM SPECTOR 
'Extraordinary' ALICE ROBERTS 
 
Welcome to a revolution in the science of you - this is the landmark new book from award-winning scientist Daniel M. Davis. 
 
Imagine taking drugs to help you acquire new skills, or knowing years in advance the precise likelihood of developing specific cancers, or following a diet and health regime tailored to your microbiome, or even having continuous monitoring of your body's workings and well-being. 
 
Written by an award-winning scientist, this landmark book shows how these radical and disconcerting possibilities have been made real. It is at once a gripping drama of scientific ingenuity, discovery and collaboration, and a vision of the human body of dizzying complexity and wonder. 
 
'The startling new discoveries...are radically altering our understanding of how we function and what our future holds' BRIAN COX 
 
'A big-picture forecast of how medicine stands on the threshold of a revolution that will radically change all of our lives' The Times

Daniel M Davis

The Secret Body

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