• Takes the modern, molecular approach to developmental biology
• Full-colour design with around 350 illustrations, makes concepts and processes crystal clear
• Divides into three sections: subcellular, molecular, advanced topics - each of which could be used alone
• Emphasises explanation so that students can easily understand difficult biochemical concepts
• Further reading allows students to delve further into the subject

Readership: Biology undergraduates doing advanced options in the genetic/cellular basis/molecular principles of development, building on earlier developmental biology courses.

Alfonso Martinez Arias, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, and Alison Stewart, Chief Knowledge Officer at the Public Health Genetics Unit, Cambridge

""...this is a book that will pleasantly complement a more traditional text in developmental biology...."..."Its molecular grounding is comprehensive and gives the reader all the tools currently available to explain pattern formation. The book will be popular with advanced undergraduates, as well as their teachers." Nature Cell Biology, November 2002."

1: Introduction: towards a molecular analysis of development
2: Programs and regulatory elements in DNA and RNA
3: Decoding the program: transcription
4: Cell surface proteins: receptors, ligands, and their environment
5: Intracellular effectors of cell interactions: signalling pathways and networks
6: Cells and their interactions
7: Basic cellular routines: division, differentiation, and cell death
8: The generation of lineages: a developmental routine
9: Long- and short-range influences in the generation of cell diversity
10: Cell-type specification: a developmental operation
11: Patterns in one and two dimensions
12: Patterns in three dimensions