Brings strands of knowledge together, 11 Oct 2008
My science background is well out-of-date. In this book I can find several half understood concepts brought together, well explained and illuminating each other to an amazing extent. It's really rather exciting!

A great introductory book, 25 Jun 2004
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics, 27 Apr 2002
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

Brings strands of knowledge together, 11 Oct 2008
My science background is well out-of-date. In this book I can find several half understood concepts brought together, well explained and illuminating each other to an amazing extent. It's really rather exciting!

A great introductory book, 25 Jun 2004
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics, 27 Apr 2002
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

Not for the layman, 27 Jul 2008
Despite the fact that the description on the back claims the book is written in 'clear and accessible prose' you will need a good understanding of organic chemistry to understand this book.

Brings strands of knowledge together, 11 Oct 2008
My science background is well out-of-date. In this book I can find several half understood concepts brought together, well explained and illuminating each other to an amazing extent. It's really rather exciting!

A great introductory book, 25 Jun 2004
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics, 27 Apr 2002
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

Not for the layman, 27 Jul 2008
Despite the fact that the description on the back claims the book is written in 'clear and accessible prose' you will need a good understanding of organic chemistry to understand this book.

A concise and readable book ideal for Graduates, 29 Jul 2003
Fersht’s ‘Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science’ covers the broad spectrum of Protein Chemistry chiefly from the view of a Biophysicist. That is to say, it only briefly describes proteins in a manner easily understood to a newcomer to peptides – Branden and Tooze’s ‘Introduction to Protein Structure’ should really be a first port of call if this area of Biochemistry is unfamiliar to the reader. The real strength of the textbook is in the clarity of explanation of enzyme catalysis – a very multifaceted subject – from a physical viewpoint. The construction of arguments from simply explained principles is a common theme throughout these many chapters on catalysis and the terminology will be recognisable for anyone with a basic grounding in Physical Organic Chemistry. Those acquainted with the style of Sykes ‘Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry’ will be in familiar territory here.

‘Structure’ contains many examples of enzymatic function to describe the various processes involved in enzyme specificity and mechanism that the reader will find useful without being overwhelming, unlike so many other Biochemistry textbooks. It appears that Fersht has selected his examples to explain a point rather than to be a comprehensive overview of catalysis. In addition, there are very useful accounts for the researcher in how to obtain such information by the way of applying the model or equations given to a real-life system.

In addition to the enzymatic structure and function that constitutes the bulk of the book, there is a concise account of Protein Engineering for both enzyme function study and protein stability itself. Fersht traverses the field from the fundamentals to current theory on folding pathways, illuminating the key concepts and experimental methods on the way. The textbook concludes many of the chapters with several case studies illustrating the methods used and information gleaned by real research and this section is particularly good on folding pathways for proteins. However, it is perhaps too brief for a researcher in protein folding and Roger Pain’s ‘Mechanisms of Protein Folding’ is a more comprehensive source for the graduate of lecturer.

In conclusion, this is a comprehensive account of enzyme structure and mechanism from a physical ‘first-principles’ point of view. It is not a book recommended for a reader seeking a brief introduction, nor for a graduate seeking a deeper insight into protein folding than basic methods for analysis. That said, it is the only textbook that combines these related disciplines in a clear manner. It is easy to read, if a little curt in parts, but it is difficult not to be impressed by the sound and detailed account of enzymes from a mechanistic background.

Brings strands of knowledge together, 11 Oct 2008
My science background is well out-of-date. In this book I can find several half understood concepts brought together, well explained and illuminating each other to an amazing extent. It's really rather exciting!

A great introductory book, 25 Jun 2004
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics, 27 Apr 2002
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

Not for the layman, 27 Jul 2008
Despite the fact that the description on the back claims the book is written in 'clear and accessible prose' you will need a good understanding of organic chemistry to understand this book.

A concise and readable book ideal for Graduates, 29 Jul 2003
Fersht’s ‘Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science’ covers the broad spectrum of Protein Chemistry chiefly from the view of a Biophysicist. That is to say, it only briefly describes proteins in a manner easily understood to a newcomer to peptides – Branden and Tooze’s ‘Introduction to Protein Structure’ should really be a first port of call if this area of Biochemistry is unfamiliar to the reader. The real strength of the textbook is in the clarity of explanation of enzyme catalysis – a very multifaceted subject – from a physical viewpoint. The construction of arguments from simply explained principles is a common theme throughout these many chapters on catalysis and the terminology will be recognisable for anyone with a basic grounding in Physical Organic Chemistry. Those acquainted with the style of Sykes ‘Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry’ will be in familiar territory here.

‘Structure’ contains many examples of enzymatic function to describe the various processes involved in enzyme specificity and mechanism that the reader will find useful without being overwhelming, unlike so many other Biochemistry textbooks. It appears that Fersht has selected his examples to explain a point rather than to be a comprehensive overview of catalysis. In addition, there are very useful accounts for the researcher in how to obtain such information by the way of applying the model or equations given to a real-life system.

In addition to the enzymatic structure and function that constitutes the bulk of the book, there is a concise account of Protein Engineering for both enzyme function study and protein stability itself. Fersht traverses the field from the fundamentals to current theory on folding pathways, illuminating the key concepts and experimental methods on the way. The textbook concludes many of the chapters with several case studies illustrating the methods used and information gleaned by real research and this section is particularly good on folding pathways for proteins. However, it is perhaps too brief for a researcher in protein folding and Roger Pain’s ‘Mechanisms of Protein Folding’ is a more comprehensive source for the graduate of lecturer.

In conclusion, this is a comprehensive account of enzyme structure and mechanism from a physical ‘first-principles’ point of view. It is not a book recommended for a reader seeking a brief introduction, nor for a graduate seeking a deeper insight into protein folding than basic methods for analysis. That said, it is the only textbook that combines these related disciplines in a clear manner. It is easy to read, if a little curt in parts, but it is difficult not to be impressed by the sound and detailed account of enzymes from a mechanistic background.

Good Reading, 20 Nov 2008
This is a recommended reading for one of my modules and I can say I don't regret buying the book, which can be said otherwise with other textbooks. It explains quite well and the materials are presented in such a way that it makes you want to read.

Brings strands of knowledge together, 11 Oct 2008
My science background is well out-of-date. In this book I can find several half understood concepts brought together, well explained and illuminating each other to an amazing extent. It's really rather exciting!

A great introductory book, 25 Jun 2004
This is an excellent introduction to this up-and-coming field. Bioinformatics one of many fields that is inherently inter-disciplinary, with biologists coming in and needing to learn computer science, and computer scientists coming in and needing to learn biology. I think that the book is very useful for both groups. I have a computer science background and did not find any of the biology overly difficult. So I highly recommend it for anyone, from the undergraduate to the postrgraduate or professional.

The book covers all of the major topics in bioinformatics, and touches on several of the minor ones. There are 5 long chapters:
Chapter 1 Introduction: introduces the basics of the field, describing the basics of data archiving, the WWW, computers and computer programming, biological classification and nomenclature, phylogenetic relationships and use of sequences, PSI-BLAST, and protein structure.
Chapter 2 Genome organization and evolution: genomics and proteomics, methods of genetic information transmission, genes and genomes, SNPs, genome evolution.
Chapter 3 Archives and information retrieval: this contains a detailed discussion of various databases and how to interact with them.
Chapter 4 Alignments and phylogenetic trees: this vast majority of this chapter covers many aspects of the important area of sequence alignment, including BLAST and HMMs. Then it has short sections on phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, again covering the basics.
Chapter 5 Protein structure and drug discovery: this starts with protein folding, and deals with hydrophobicity, structural alignments, DALI, and then evolution, classification and prediction of protein structures and function. Finally it touches on drug discovery in this context.

One of the nice things about this book is the code samples, written in the bioinformatician's favorite language, Perl. These are printed and discussed in the book, but then also available on the web site that is associated with the book, so you don't have to type it in yourself. In addition to the programs, the website also has graphics from the book, many of which rotate so you can see them from different positions (can't get that in a book!). It also has the web links mentioned in the book, so you can explore them more conveniently than having to flip through the book and type the URLs in.

An excellent beginner's guide to bioinformatics, 27 Apr 2002
This is a superb introduction to the subject of bioinformatics. It is very well written, and for the first time (thanks to this book) I can understand what hidden Markov models are about. It invites comparison with another book of the same name, namely "Introduction to Bioinformatics" by Attwood and Parry-Smith. The book by Lesk has two advantages (three, I suppose, if you include the fact that it is a more recent publication): it uses everyday, non-biological analogies to explain many of the concepts that are otherwise difficult to grasp, and it also covers molecular modelling.

Advanced undergraduate students tackling bioinformatics for the first time, or research students whose experience of bioinformatics is limited to the odd BLAST search and surfing through genomes, will find this book a must have. You will wonder how you ever got by without it.

Not for the layman, 27 Jul 2008
Despite the fact that the description on the back claims the book is written in 'clear and accessible prose' you will need a good understanding of organic chemistry to understand this book.

A concise and readable book ideal for Graduates, 29 Jul 2003
Fersht’s ‘Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science’ covers the broad spectrum of Protein Chemistry chiefly from the view of a Biophysicist. That is to say, it only briefly describes proteins in a manner easily understood to a newcomer to peptides – Branden and Tooze’s ‘Introduction to Protein Structure’ should really be a first port of call if this area of Biochemistry is unfamiliar to the reader. The real strength of the textbook is in the clarity of explanation of enzyme catalysis – a very multifaceted subject – from a physical viewpoint. The construction of arguments from simply explained principles is a common theme throughout these many chapters on catalysis and the terminology will be recognisable for anyone with a basic grounding in Physical Organic Chemistry. Those acquainted with the style of Sykes ‘Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry’ will be in familiar territory here.

‘Structure’ contains many examples of enzymatic function to describe the various processes involved in enzyme specificity and mechanism that the reader will find useful without being overwhelming, unlike so many other Biochemistry textbooks. It appears that Fersht has selected his examples to explain a point rather than to be a comprehensive overview of catalysis. In addition, there are very useful accounts for the researcher in how to obtain such information by the way of applying the model or equations given to a real-life system.

In addition to the enzymatic structure and function that constitutes the bulk of the book, there is a concise account of Protein Engineering for both enzyme function study and protein stability itself. Fersht traverses the field from the fundamentals to current theory on folding pathways, illuminating the key concepts and experimental methods on the way. The textbook concludes many of the chapters with several case studies illustrating the methods used and information gleaned by real research and this section is particularly good on folding pathways for proteins. However, it is perhaps too brief for a researcher in protein folding and Roger Pain’s ‘Mechanisms of Protein Folding’ is a more comprehensive source for the graduate of lecturer.

In conclusion, this is a comprehensive account of enzyme structure and mechanism from a physical ‘first-principles’ point of view. It is not a book recommended for a reader seeking a brief introduction, nor for a graduate seeking a deeper insight into protein folding than basic methods for analysis. That said, it is the only textbook that combines these related disciplines in a clear manner. It is easy to read, if a little curt in parts, but it is difficult not to be impressed by the sound and detailed account of enzymes from a mechanistic background.

Good Reading, 20 Nov 2008
This is a recommended reading for one of my modules and I can say I don't regret buying the book, which can be said otherwise with other textbooks. It explains quite well and the materials are presented in such a way that it makes you want to read.

A great book for begginers., 17 May 1999
As it's name implies this book covers only elementary methods, and this makes it extremely useful for beginners. Particularly higher undergraduate and graduate students with no previous knowledge of computer simulation methods. It is very kind with the reader, being very explicit on many topics other books take for granted. The sections on hard sphere simulation are particularly long compared with other books on the subject. The code included is very well organized and helpful, every book should have it documented this way!. If you program in fortran it's very useful, but if you program in C I recommend Rapaport's book instead, altough it's a little more difficult. I particularly liked the introduction about simulation and some phylosophical aspects of it.