HOOMAN RASHIDI has an MS degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. He studies Medicine at the Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.
LUKAS K. BUEHLER has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Bioinformatics Basics Applications in Biological Science and Medicine
by Hooman Rashidi, Lukas K. Buehler
CRC Press, 2000

Grundriss der Bioinformatik, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, Mai 2001

Computers have revolutionized biology and medicine controlling everything from DNA sequencing  to aiding in the interpretation of the functional significance of those sequences and the rational design of drugs. The most amazing result is the existence of publicly accessible databases which can be accessed from anywhere in the world and and analysed using interactive software via the Internet. No longer do scientists depend on physical access to super computer centres or the mailing of magnetic tapes to the laboratory from there. Most molecular biologist are not computer scientists, but simply want to use computers as tools to do research. 'Bioinformatics Basics' gives an overview of free and publicly available information and information management. This book does not tell you how to write algorithms, but how to use Genbank, KEGG metabolic database, EBI's multiple alignment software, and Expasy's proteomics tools. 

'Bioinformatics Basics' is an introductory book about the influence of computers on the biological sciences and medicine. The book describes how to find and access publicly available information about genes, proteins, and diseases. It explains in simple terms biological concepts and how to find and compare DNA and amino acid sequences, understand protein folding and predict protein structures. It also explains the importance of diverse genome projects and the emerging sciences of genomics and proteomics.

Contents: Preface.- Introduction.- Biology and Bioinformatics.- Computers in Biology and Medicine.-Biological Macromolecules.- Proteins.- DNA and RNA Structure.- Databases and Search Tools.-Computational Tools and Databases.- Database Mining Tools.- Genome Analysis.- DNA Cloning and PCR.- Computational Tools For DNA Sequence Analysis.- Genome Analysis.- Functional Genomics.- Proteome Analysis.- Proteomics.- Metabolic Reconstruction.- Computer Revolution In Neurobiology.- Human Brain Project.- Computer Simulations and Visualization of Molecular Structures.- Predictive Biology.- Appendix."

January 2, 2000 /  © 2000 Lukas K. Buehler / go back to Book Review Home