Píseň buňky

Píseň buňky. Proměny medicíny a lidského těla

SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE

„In an account that’s both lyrical and capacious, Mukherjee takes us through an evolution of human understanding: from the seventeenth-century discovery that humans are made up of cells to our cutting-edge technologies for manipulating and deploying cells for therapeutic purposes.“ – The New Yorker

„Tying together what might otherwise be a disjointed narrative, Mukherjee frequently invokes the patient’s journey. We hear their voices throughout, reminding the reader that however great our knowledge, there is still much to learn. ... A great read with which it is hard not to hum along.“ – Marie Vodicka, Science

American oncologist, scientist, and writer, well known to Czech readers thanks to translations of his earlier major works The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2015) a The Gene: An Intimate History (2019), published by Masaryk University Press, now brings a new gripping story. The Song of the Cell tells the story of how scientists gradually discovered, and since the 17th century also observed, cells – the basic units of living organisms. It describes how they slowly learned to understand the vital interconnections that form tissues, organs, and organ systems – the cellular networks that give rise to such astonishing physiological functions as immunity, reproduction, perception, comprehension, repair, and rejuvenation. It also tells what happens when cells fail and development takes a pathological course. And finally, how the constant expansion and deepening of human knowledge of cellular physiology and pathology leads to revolutionary changes in biology and medicine.

A hip fracture, cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s disease, kidney failure, arthritis, pneumonia, or COVID – thanks to the author, we can now see all of these from a completely new perspective and understand them as consequences of abnormal functioning of cells or their systems. This opens the way to a new kind of medicine based on therapeutic modification of the cell, developing new drugs, new treatments, and new approaches to healing and transforming the human body.

Mukherjee’s captivating scientific explanations, in which he masterfully applies his narrative talent, are interwoven with stories from the lives of past and present researchers, his own experiences, and at times painful memories of patients and friends lost to illness.

Siddhartha Mukherjee was born and raised in Delhi. He studied medicine at leading universities in the USA and the UK. He teaches at Columbia University and, as a hemato-oncologist, focuses on research into hematopoietic stem cells. For his book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2011.

Translated from the English original The Song of the Cell: The Story of Life by Jan Šmarda, with language collaboration by Kateřina Danielová.

The New York Times called The Song of the Cell a remarkable book, and according to The Daily Telegraph, The Economist, The Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, Oprah Daily and others, it was the best book of 2023.

The book is a 10th volume of the First time in Czech series which aims to make significant works of world scientific literature accessible to Czech readers that have not yet been published in Czech.

To be published in November 2025.