Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins (Methods of Biochemical Analysis) (Hardcover)

by Andreas D. Baxevanis (Editor), B. F. Francis Ouellette (Editor) "Bioinformatics represents a new, growing area of science that uses computational approaches to answer biological questions..." (more)
Key Phrases: contig editor, barnase molecules, structure database records, Genome Res, Nucleic Acids Res, World Wide Web (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"... a nice overview of bioinformatics that is suitable for the neophyte and those experienced in the field." -- Biotech Software and Internet Report

"... a useful resource to help biologists extract the maximum value from their data." -- Cell

"... a very useful handbook to keep on the shelf after the first reading, close to the computer." -- Nature Structural Biology

"... a wonderful primer designed to navigate the novice through the intricacies of in scripto analysis." -- Trends in Biochemical Sciences

"... should be in the personal library of any biologist who uses the Internet for the analysis of ... sequence data." -- Science

"... should be included in the collection of anyone involved with the emerging field of bioinformatics." -- Biotech Software and Internet Report

"an excellent reference to the principles of bioinformatics." -- TIBS

Product Description
"In this book, Andy Baxevanis and Francis Ouellette . . . have undertaken the difficult task of organizing the knowledge in this field in a logical progression and presenting it in a digestible form. And they have done an excellent job. This fine text will make a major impact on biological research and, in turn, on progress in biomedicine. We are all in their debt."-Eric Lander from the Foreword
Reviews from the First Edition
"...provides a broad overview of the basic tools for sequence analysis ... For biologists approaching this subject for the first time, it will be a very useful handbook to keep on the shelf after the first reading, close to the computer."-Nature Structural Biology
"...should be in the personal library of any biologist who uses the Internet for the analysis of DNA and protein sequence data." -Science
"...a wonderful primer designed to navigate the novice through the intricacies of in scripto analysis ... The accomplished gene searcher will also find this book a useful addition to their library ... an excellent reference to the principles of bioinformatics."-Trends in Biochemical Sciences
This new edition of the highly successful Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins provides a sound foundation of basic concepts, with practical discussions and comparisons of both computational tools and databases relevant to biological research.
Equipping biologists with the modern tools necessary to solve practical problems in sequence data analysis, the Second Edition covers the broad spectrum of topics in bioinformatics, ranging from Internet concepts to predictive algorithms used on sequence, structure, and expression data. With chapters written by experts in the field, this up-to-date reference thoroughly covers vital concepts and is appropriate for both the novice and the experienced practitioner. Written in clear, simple language, the book is accessible to users without an advanced mathematical or computer science background. This new edition includes:
* All new end-of-chapter Web resources, bibliographies, and problem sets
* Accompanying Web site containing the answers to the problems, as well as links to relevant Web resources
* New coverage of comparative genomics, large-scale genome analysis, sequence assembly, and expressed sequence tags
* A glossary of commonly used terms in bioinformatics and genomics
Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins, Second Edition is essential reading for researchers, instructors, and students of all levels in molecular biology and bioinformatics, as well as for investigators involved in genomics, positional cloning, clinical research, and computational biology.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 470 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 2 Sub edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471383902
• ISBN-13: 978-0471383901
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,200,566 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars from NATURE STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY review (Dec 99), December 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins (Paperback)

"The novice user of bioinformatics tools needs a guide that answers several fundamental questions - what are these tools designed for and what can they do; what are their limitations; how does one access them, and where can one find further information. For each of the basic sub-fields of bioinformatics, Bioinformatics provides a survey, a list of world wide web addresses (URLs), and a list of monographs and reviews to which the reader may go for further information. Each chapter covers fundamental definitions and makes no assumptions about prior knowledge.... The book provides a broad overview of the basic tools for sequence analysis. It is a good starting point for the reader who wants to learn about the types of tools used in bioinfomatics and how to get started. For biologists approaching this subject for the first time, it will be a very useful handbook to keep on the shelf after the first reading, close to the computer." --Terry Gaasterland, The Rockefeller University

45 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mileading, disappointing, useless, June 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins, Second Edition (Paperback)

Baxevanis and Ouellete apparently convinced some of their colleagues from NIH (and a few others) to publish user manuals for selected computer programs in the form of edited book. The idea itself is valuable provided that the complete collection of meaningful software is described competently and honestly. Unfortunately the content of this book is limited mostly to the software developed by NCBI and to analyses performed on the UNIX-based workstations. There is almost no coverage of other bioinformatics software (except for the GCG package which contains software and database tools common with NCBI anyway.)

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the book is lack of description of the fundamentals of sequence analysis. With the exception of Chapter 10 one cannot learn sequence analysis from this volume. Nor would it be advisable to use it as a desk reference to find appropriate citations of published sequence analysis work. A vast majority of references cited is biased. Merits of the citations' content do not seem to matter to the editors and that makes their book almost useless for the would-be practitioners.

I hasten to admonish that the book appears to be primarily a software marketing material and not an effort to educate or otherwise empower the reader. I am surprised that the material covered by the book is not distributed free of charge via Internet or other publicly available means. 9 out of 16 contributors (I refer here to the first edition) are actively working for the US Government at the time of writing. Still their chapters appear to be copyrighted by the publisher instead of being in public domain. But these are all minor problems comparing to the misgivings of the book's content mentioned in the first two paragraphs of this note.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important contribution to a cutting edge field., October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins (Hardcover)

This book represents an very important contribution to the emerging field of bioinformatics. There is a vast, and continually growing, amount of resources available for the analysis of DNA and protein sequences. The difficulty comes is making in sense of all it all, and organizing it in the most productive manner possible. This work is one of the few texts -- and certainly the most current -- to address this issue and provide realistic and usable systems to accomplish that. It should be required reading for anyone wishing to remain up-to-date in this rapidly changing field. This is one "practical guide" that really is!