An Introduction to Bioinformatics is intended to be a complete study companion for the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student. It is self-contained in the sense that whatever the starting point may be, the reader will gain insight into bioinformatics. Underlying the work is the belief that bioinformatics is a kind of metaphoric lens through which the entire field of biology can be brought into focus, admittedly as yet imperfect, and understood in a unified way. Reflecting the highly incomplete present state of the field, emphasis is placed on the underlying fundamentals and acquisitions of a broad and comprehensive grasp of the field as a whole.

Bioinformatics is interpreted as the application of information science to biology, in which it plays a fundamental and all-pervasive role. This interpretation enables a remarkably unified view of the entire field of biology to be taken and hence offers an excellent entry point into the life sciences for those for whom biology is unfamiliar.

Inhalt

Preface. 1. Introduction. I: Information. 2. The nature of information. 3. The transmission of information. 4. Sets and combinatorics. 5. Probability and likelihood. 6. Randomness and complexity. 7. Systems, networks and circuits. II: Biology. 8. Introduction to part II. 9. The nature of living things. 10. The molecules of life. III: Applications. 11. Introduction to part III. 12. Genomics. 13. Proteomics. 14. Interactions. 15. Metabolomics and metabonomics. 16. Medical applications. Bibliography.