With its highly developed capacity to detect patterns in data, Perl has become one of the most popular languages for biological data analysis. But if you're a biologist with little or no programming experience, starting out in Perl can be a challenge. Many biologists have a difficult time learning how to apply the language to bioinformatics. The most popular Perl programming books are often too theoretical and too focused on computer science for a non-programming biologist who needs to solve very specific problems.Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics is designed to get you quickly over the Perl language barrier by approaching programming as an important new laboratory skill, revealing Perl programs and techniques that are immediately useful in the lab. Each chapter focuses on solving a particular bioinformatics problem or class of problems, starting with the simplest and increasing in complexity as the book progresses. Each chapter includes programming exercises and teaches bioinformatics by showing and modifying programs that deal with various kinds of practical biological problems. By the end of the book you'll have a solid understanding of Perl basics, a collection of programs for such tasks as parsing BLAST and GenBank, and the skills to take on more advanced bioinformatics programming. Some of the later chapters focus in greater detail on specific bioinformatics topics. This book is suitable for use as a classroom textbook, for self-study, and as a reference.The book covers:
- Programming basics and working with DNA sequences and strings
- Debugging your code
- Simulating gene mutations using random number generators
- Regular expressions and finding motifs in data
- Arrays, hashes, and relational databases
- Regular expressions and restriction maps
- Using Perl to parse PDB records, annotations in GenBank, and BLAST output
".....it is highly recommended for biologists and computer scientists who are new to the field of bioinformatics." -- Darryl Nishamura, Bioinformatics and Internet Report, Vol 3 Number 2, 2002
"Exactly what the average, over-worked geneticist needs." -- Gregory V. Wilson, Dr Dobbs Journal, June 2002
"James Tisdall's Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics, on the other hand, is exactly what the average over-worked geneticist needs....." -- Greg V. Wilson, Dr Dobbs, June 2002
Good for biotech professionals who are familiar with bio concepts and need to brush up on the practical computer science aspects of their field. -- Netsurfer Digest, Jan 2002
It's a solid book, and one that should be able to get people learning Perl, genetics, or both up to speed and working on real world problems quickly. -- Babbage, slashdot.org, Jan 2002
