Computational Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 32 (New Comprehensive Biochemistry) [Paperback]

S.L. Salzberg (Editor), D.B. Searls (Editor), S. Kasif (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0444502041 | ISBN-13: 978-0444502049 | Edition: 1

Computational biology is a rapidly expanding field, and the number and variety of computational methods used for DNA and protein sequence analysis is growing every day. These algorithms are extremely valuable to biotechnology companies and to researchers and teachers in universities.
This book explains the latest computer technology for analyzing DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. Clear and easy to follow, designed specifically for the non-computer scientist, it will help biologists make better choices on which algorithm to use. New techniques and demonstrations are elucidated, as are state-of-the-art problems, and more advanced material on the latest algorithms.
The primary audience for this volume are molecular biologists working either in biotechnology companies or academic research environments, individual researchers and the institutions they work for, and students. Any biologist who relies on computers should want this book.
A secondary audience will be computer scientists developing techniques with applications in biology.
An excellent reference for leading techniques, it will also help introduce computer scientists to the biology problems. This is an outstanding work which will be ideal for the increasing number of scientists moving into computational biology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Clear and easy to follow, designed specifically for the non computer scientist, it will help biologists make better choices on which algorithm to use.
Documentation
(...)an impressive selection of papers, all authored by leading bioinformaticians. The volume covers this large multi-disciplinary field of research quite well, from sequence alignment, pattern discovery, gene finding to protein structure.
Trends in Genetics
(A. Lloyd, INCBI, the Irish EMBnet Node)
The editors have decided to choose authors who have contributed effective software to the community. This horse's mouth approach has the advantage of getting really authoritative explanations of the problems and their solutions.(...)significant effort has been made to introduce each topic in general terms before ploughing deeper into the structure, constraints and functions of biological molecules.
Briefings In Bioinformatics, Vol. 1, No. 3

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Elsevier Science; 1 edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0444502041
• ISBN-13: 978-0444502049
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,329,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars covers lots of practical topics, however rather superficial., January 28, 2001

By 

a student (Taejon Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computational Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 32 (New Comprehensive Biochemistry) (Paperback)

This book is introductory. It deals with many topics such as biological sequence analysis, hidden markov model(HMM), gene prediction using Neural Networks, RNA splicing signal model, evolutionary approach and protein structure modeling. It is helpful to glimpse a broad overview of these topics, however the explanations are rather superficial. Especially the chapters covering sequence analysis are too concise.

In this respect, I recommend the following two books for the readers who want more clear and indepth explanations on the sequence analysis.

<Introduction to Computational Molecular Biology> by Joao Carlos Setubal (Contributor), Joao Meidanis, Joao C. Setabal

<Biological Sequence Analysis : Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids> by Richard Durbin (Editor), S. Eddy, A. Krogh, G. Mitchison (Contributor)

Also for the readers who are interested in bioinformatics tools, I would recommend

<Bioinformatics : A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins> by Andreas Baxevanis (Editor), B.F.Francis Ouellette (Editor)

Anyway this book covers lots of practical topics and is worth reading.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brief glimpses of many topics, October 10, 2003

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Computational Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 32 (New Comprehensive Biochemistry) (Paperback)

I think the book is more about bioinformatics than molecular biology, but good anyway. If a student has already made some headway in bioinformatics, she is likely to want a peek at the different directions and depths that future study will offer. This book gives a good preview.

Its fifteen chapters are almost all by different authors, on different topics, in different styles and with different mathematical tools. Except for some introductory material, each chapter stands by itself. The chapters are uniformly well written, they keep their computations close to the biology, and they offer depth without falling into a morass of detail. The book uses math but is not too demanding; readers should not be put off by its "Computational" title.

Once inside the book, its authors take us on a quick tour of selected topics, including RNA splicing, high-level annotation of DNA meaning, and several views of protein structure. Computational techniques include traditional decision trees, as well as more modern hidden Markov model techniques, neural nets, analogy to vison processing, and much more.

This book presupposes a bit of knowledge of biology, chemistry, and probability, but not daunting amounts. It's a nice way for the beginner to see which directions look most personally interesting. It may also give the more focussed student a quick look at current highlights in nearby fields. This isn't as complete as a 'survey' book would be, but very good in its own way.

(I've had the pleasure of studying under Prof. Kasif, one of the editors and authors, and hope that familiarity has not prejudiced this review.)

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific overview of the grand challenges, January 14, 2002

By 

John Rachlin (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computational Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 32 (New Comprehensive Biochemistry) (Paperback)

This book offers a wonderful overview of the computational problems in bioinformatics. Readers with an interest in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning will find this book especially worthwhile. There are chapters on hidden Markov models, case-based reasoning, neural networks, evolutionary approaches (Genetic Algorithms), decision-trees, and probabilistic networks, among others. The book covers sequence analysis, gene prediction and annotation, and includes extensive material on protein structure prediction. A must read for anyone interested in Bioinformatics research.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to mention that one of the editors of this book, Dr. Steven Salzberg, was my graduate advisor when I was a student at Johns Hopkins from 1992 to 1994.