Looking For Good Books On Genomics

Question

[Daniel]

Hello and greetings to all,

I am a programmer, not a biologist, and I know very little about Genomics. I have been offered a position at a genetics research lab, as a python programmer, automating some of their procedures and taking care of other computer related aspects of their work. So I need to learn some genomics and bioinformatics.

I have found some online resources, such as:

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21101/
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7152/

And I would like to ask for some book recommendations - I'm looking for good, contemporary literature that will cover all I need to know.

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

Answer 1

[Aaronquinlan]

This is a very accessible, yet surprisingly comprehensive introduction to genomics with chapters on the biology, technology, and some modern computational and statistical techniques.

I usually have new students read a few relevant chapters before starting their research projects and most find it to be very informative.

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Genome-Science-Third-Edition/dp/0878932364

Answer 2

[bw.]

Hi Daniel, this comes to mind:

Intro to Bioinformatic Programming Using Python by Orielly from 2009

-Ben

Ps. I came into bioinformatics the same way, and found wikipedia, this forum, seqanswers.com, and review articles to be my primary resources.

Answer 3

[Daniel]

Hi,

I've used O'Reilley books a lot, they're usually good.

Thanks guys, I'll check both these books out.

-Daniel

Answer 4

[Ian]

A good general text book is Human Molecular genetics by Strachen and Read.

The 2nd Edition is available on the NCBI bookshelf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7580/

The current 4th edition was published 2010, whereas the free version was published 2001 (the version I had as an undergrad), so pre the next generation revolution.