LEVY, Elinor 1942-

PERSONAL: Born March 18, 1942; daughter of Louis and Tillie (Shepeton) Miller; married Charles Joseph Levy, July 11, 1962; children: Benjamin, Rebecca. Education: Brandeis University, B.A., 1963; Emory University, Ph.D., 1972.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Boston University School of Medicine, MED Microbiology, 715 Albany St., L517, Boston, MA 02118. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, research associate, 1975-79, assistant professor of microbiology, 1979-84, associate professor of immunology and virology, 1984—.

MEMBER: American Association of Immunologists.

WRITINGS:

(With Tom Monte) The Ten Best Tools to Boost YourImmune System, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

(With Mark Fischetti) The New Killer Diseases: How the Alarming Evolution of Mutant Germs Threatens Us All, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Elinor Levy is a researcher of microbiology and immunology. Her first book, The Ten Best Tools to Boost Your Immune System, is a straight-forward diet guide to help those who seek to improve their immune systems. In a review for Booklist Stephanie Zvirin called The Ten Best Tools to Boost Your Immune System "a well-reasoned, enlightening book that focuses on the practical without forgetting the science."

For Levy's latest book, The New Killer Diseases: How the Alarming Evolution of Mutant Germs Threatens Us All, she teams up with science writer Mark Fischetti. The book focuses on new infectious dieseases such as AIDS, West Nile virus, and SARS. The book delves into specific examples and talks about how to fight against these deadly diseases. The authors use personal stories of victims of these diseases to illustrate the need to fight against these diseases. They also include descriptions of what each disease does to the body. A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews observed that the book is "a gripping tale of flesh-eating bacteria, drug-resistant and highly infectious bacilli, mutant flu viruses, and brain-destroying prions."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1997, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Ten Best Tools to Boost Your Immune System, p. 7098.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2003, review of The NewKiller Diseases: How the Alarming Evolution of Mutant Germs Threatens Us All, p. 660.

Library Journal, February 1, 1997, Dixie Jones, review of The Ten Best Tools to Boost Your Immune System, pp. 99-100.

Publishers Weekly, April 28, 2003, review of The NewKiller Diseases, pp. 56-57.*