Bioinformatics
Two books devoted to the state of the art in bioinformatics are covered: a one-volume work, Current Topics in Computation Molecular Biology, and a two- volume work, Bio informatics, both of which are organized collections of articles by experts in the subfields of this discipline.
Abstract
135 THIS REVIEW COVERS TWO BOOKS devoted to the state of the art in bioinformatics: a one-volume work, Current Topics in Computation Molecular Biology, and a two-volume work, Bioinformatics. Both are organized collections of articles by experts in the subfields of this discipline.There is substantial overlap between the two (two of the authors appear in both), but they are largely independent, and both present valuable perspectives. Current Topics tilts a bit more in the math direction (it has a chapter on DNA data compression), while Bioinformatics tilts a bit more in the medical direction (it emphasizes drug discovery, as the title indicates). Both will be useful for anyone wanting to know the state of knowledge in current areas of research in bioinformatics. Although these books are not textbooks, they could be valuable references for courses in bioinformatics, especially because they include many recent topics not adequately covered in textbooks. Moreover, they include helpful introductory material for subjects such as Bayesian statistical analysis (in Current Topics), and the basics of molecular medicine and the sequence structure of eukaryotic genes (in Bioinformatics). In a rapidly developing field like bioinformatics, books like these are especially appreciated.