Suitable for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates, Understanding Bioinformatics provides a definitive guide to this
vibrant and evolving discipline. The book takes a conceptual approach. It guides the reader from first principles
through to an understanding of the computational techniques and the key algorithms. Understanding Bioinformatics is an
invaluable companion for students from their first encounter with the subject through to more advanced studies.
The book is divided into seven parts, with the opening part introducing the basics of nucleic acids, proteins and
databases. Subsequent parts are divided into 'Applications' and 'Theory' Chapters, allowing readers to focus their
attention effectively. In each section, the Applications Chapter provides a fast and straightforward route to
understanding the main concepts and 'getting started'. Each of these is then followed by Theory Chapters which give
greater detail and present the underlying mathematics. In Part 2, Sequence Alignments, the Applications Chapter shows
the reader how to get started on producing and analyzing sequence alignments, and using sequences for database
searching, while the next two chapters look closely at the more advanced techniques and the mathematical algorithms
involved. Part 3 covers evolutionary processes and shows how bioinformatics can be used to help build phylogenetic
trees. Part 4 looks at the characteristics of whole genomes. In Parts 5 and 6 the focus turns to secondary and tertiary
structure – predicting structural conformation and analysing structure-function relationships. The last part surveys
methods of analyzing data from a set of genes or proteins of an organism and is rounded off with an overview of systems
biology.
The writing style of Understanding Bioinformatics is notable for its clarity, while the full-color artwork has been
designed to present the key concepts with simplicity and consistency. Each chapter uses mind-maps and flow diagrams to
give an overview of the conceptual links within each topic.
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