Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine, and Business [Hardcover]

Glyn Moody (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471327883 | ISBN-13: 978-0471327882 | Publication Date: February 3, 2004 | Edition: 1

A behind-the-scenes look at the most lucrative discipline within biotechnology
Bioinformatics represents a new area of opportunity for investors and industry participants. Companies are spending billions on the potentially lucrative products that will come from bioinformatics. This book looks at what companies like Merck, Glaxo SmithKline Beecham, and Celera, and hospitals are doing to maneuver themselves to leadership positions in this area. Filled with in-depth insights and surprising revelations, Digital Code of Life examines the personalities who have brought bioinformatics to life and explores the commercial applications and investment opportunities of the most lucrative discipline within genomics.
Glyn Moody (London, UK) has published numerous articles in Wired magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Rebel Code.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In just a few decades, computers have become the single most important tool in genomics, thanks to their ability to unlock the meaning of the digital program that underlies all life. Driving this development is bioinformatics, the use of computers to store, search through, and analyze billions of DNA letters.

Bioinformatics turned the dream of sequencing the human genome into reality, allowing humanity to decode the deepest secrets contained in the digital core of life. The rise of bioinformatics has provided pharmaceutical companies with vital information that will aid the search for effective drugs and vaccines, helping to usher in the long-promised era of personalized medicine. It’s no wonder that bioinformatics is rapidly becoming the core discipline within biotechnology today–one that provides strategic inputs for pharmaceutical companies like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Roche when they decide where to spend billions on the development of potentially lucrative products.

Digital Code of Life offers a behind-the-scenes look at the rapidly growing field of bioinformatics and what medical organizations and companies worldwide are doing to exploit its potential. Filled with in-depth insights and often surprising revelations, Digital Code of Life examines the personalities who have brought bioinformatics into being and explores the commercial applications and investment opportunities of this exciting and groundbreaking discipline, including those in emerging areas.

Glyn Moody, author of the widely praised Rebel Code, offers a fascinating account of the field of bioinformatics for both business technology enthusiasts and healthcare professionals. Here, for the first time, is the real drama of how the complete sequence of the human genome was put together, its resulting impact on the economy as well as the healthcare industry, and the fierce competition between the public and private sectors to reap its rewards.

Brimming with little-known insider facts and valuable insights on how to recognize growth companies in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industries, Digital Code of Life will prove to be exciting reading for anyone interested in what is potentially the most important new high-technology sector and investment opportunity to emerge in recent years.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Digital Code of Life

"The man who wrote the best history yet of the open-source movement in Rebel Code gives us an equally lucid and penetrating look at bioinformatics. Well done!"
–Eric S. Raymond
Author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar

"This book provides a riveting account of the history of bioinformatics and of the manner in which bioinformatics has contributed to advancing our knowledge of the human genome. Glyn Moody has chronicled through reviews of key scientific papers and through interviews with leading scientists, the major developments in the field of genomics in the past half century, from the discovery of the double helix to the emergence of proteomics, pointing to their relevance to science, medicine, and industry and to the critical contributions of bioinformatics."
–Sam Hanash, University of Michigan
President of The Human Proteome Organisation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471327883
• ISBN-13: 978-0471327882
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dull, microbiography: I have been a technology journalist for a quarter of a century, covering the Internet since March 1994, and the free software world since 1995. One early feature I wrote was for Wired in 1997: The Greatest OS that (N)ever Was.

My most recent books are Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution, and Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine and Business.

Interesting, macrobiography: (I'm working on it)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading, February 18, 2008

By 

Jason T. Stevens (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine, and Business (Hardcover)

As the other reviewer notes, this book does what it's meant to do: give you an overview of the myriad developments in bioinformatics since its inception. It's fairly engaging, though, for me, that's mostly due to the subject matter itself and not the writer's abilities. This is why I gave it four stars instead of five.

The scientific explanations are usually not that great, even if the concepts aren't that difficult to understand given some understanding of the underlying biological concepts. I had to quit reading and go in Wikipedia to understand some of these concepts because I felt the author's explanations were just unnecessarily confusing. And the author often decides to jump from the narrative and devote a page to the science, which isn't a horrible thing to do, but I feel maybe the science could have either been explained more succinctly or integrated with the narrative better. So that, along with the worst proofreading I've encountered in a published book (multiple instances of missing words [like 'a' or 'the'], missing punctuation [periods, parentheses], inconsistent punctuation, etc.), prompts me to give a four-star rating.

That said, it's certainly worth reading; and, from what I've surmised, it's the only published book on the history of bioinformatics (that isn't solely concerned with the Human Genome Project), so it's not like there are (m)any alternatives.

I'll also note that even though this was published a few years ago, it feels slightly outdated already due to the perpetual advances in throughput and methodology in the field. A new edition (at least with an afterword explaining recent advances) would be nice.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful reading, January 19, 2006

By 

Shuzhao Li - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine, and Business (Hardcover)

It's been a while since I read this book. So I try to get back on my impressions.
The book has a good sketch on the key developments of modern genomics and bioinformatics, full of gossips and vivid stories. It is a very difficult job to write a history or something close to that for a fast evolving field. And there are limited accounts on the business side too. To her credit, the author has done an excellent job.
I had concerns over the accuracy and coverage of some contents and opinions. But given the breadth of the book, probably this is how good it can get. Other than that, it was a very interesting reading. I recommended it to a friend right the way.