Product Description

Bioinformatics is the collective name for a set of skills that has now become arguably one of the most important information-gathering and knowledge-building tools in current science research. The increase in the reliance upon bioinformatics in current research has made it essential for training in these skills to become an integral part of current science education. Introduction to Bioinformatics is a timely and much-needed textbook which provides an accessible and thorough introduction to a subject which has become a fundamental part of biological science today. As a pioneer of the use of bioinformatics techniques in research, Dr Lesk brings unrivalled experience and expertise to the study of this field. The aim of the book is to integrate an understanding of the biological background of bioinformatics with development of necessary computing skills. Without describing computer science or sophisticated programming skills in detail, the book supports and encourages the application of the many powerful computational tools of bioinformatics in a way that is both relevant to and stimulating for the reader. The book contains numerous problems and innovative Weblems (for Web-based Problems) to encourage students to engage with the subject and, with the accompanying web site, to develop a working understanding and appreciation of the power of bioinformatics as a research tool. Web site www oup.com/uk/best.textbooks/biochemistry/bioinf/ A logo in the text alerts the reader to check the web site for the full text of programs referred to in the book. The web site also has links related to the book's problems, the innovative Weblems (for Web-based Problems), to encourage students to engage with the subject and, with the web site, to develop a working understanding and appreciation of the power of bioinformatics as a research tool.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #757782 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 308 pages

Review
"An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics" Amazon.co.uk, May 2002 "Introduction to Bioinformatics is a firstrate response to these demands and provides lucid and well-written explanations of how and why to perform bioinformatic analyses. Arthur Lesk clearly explains the underlying logic of sequence analyses and illustrates what algorithms do, often by use of helpful analogies to everyday life" Times Higher Education Supplement, April 2003

About the Author
Dr Arthur Lesk, Senior Research Associate, Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, UK

Customer Reviews

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

A great introductory book
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

Fantastic Book !!
This books is one of the greatest books in Bioinformatics. Actually, I attended one week seminar given by Prof. Lesk. His presentation of this material cannot be described. It was tremendous !