UB Scientist Edits Comprehensive Book On Oxidative Stress, Antioxidant Activity

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Donald Armstrong, Ph.D., D.Sc., a University at Buffalo specialist in free-radical bioactivity, is editor of a new book of analytical protocols for measuring oxidative stress and antioxidant activity published by The Humana Press, Inc.

The book will be introduced this month to the scientific community at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology in San Francisco.

Oxidative stress caused by free oxygen, carbon and nitrogen molecules, which are produced as a byproduct of normal metabolism, has been implicated in many chronic health problems. Armstrong, professor of clinical laboratory science, organized an international meeting in the field titled "Free Radicals in Diagnostic Medicine," which was held in Buffalo in 1993. The book of protocols is an outgrowth of that meeting.

Developed for researchers in the field of free radicals and as a laboratory text for molecular biology or pathology, the book presents step-by-step instructions for 40 different measurement techniques. Each protocol includes warnings of potential pitfalls and notes when special precautions should be taken.

Experts from Europe, Asia and North America, including 25 from UB, contributed to these protocols.

A second book by Armstrong, which covers additional new tests for specific free-radical markers and for individual antioxidants or antioxidant systems, is under review by the publisher.

The books will be part of Humana's "Methods in Molecular Biology" series.