Michael Agostino received his PhD in molecular biology from Roswell Park, a division of SUNY at Buffalo, New York. He did genetic engineering laboratory research for 13 years before making the formal switch to bioinformatics, working at GlaxoSmithKline, Genetics Institute, and Pfizer for over 33 years. At those companies he worked with other scientists, providing sequence analysis support for projects too numerous to count. Michael is now an instructor for Harvard Extension School, where, for 10 years, he has been teaching a course largely based on this book.

Reviews for the First Edition:“This is one of the most well written and well organized books on bioinformatics that I have come across. The chapters and concepts are arranged in order of complexity and the writing is easy to understand. This is an excellent introductory book for bioinformatics, yet it contains enough detail to help both a serious researcher as well as a beginner in the field.” - Science Books & Film"This textbook would be useful to any biologist, as its chapters span RNA sequencing to protein analysis to miRNA target prediction. It is hard to think of a database currently available online on which this text does not include a detailed tutorial....it made bioinformatics appealing to learn about, as some pages contained highlighted boxes of interesting facts about the history of sequencing, biology, or various discoveries....Practical Bioinformatics will be invaluable to the general researcher or student..." - Yale Journal of Bioogy and Medicine"The book is well laid out, focusing initially on finding and manipulating single DNA or protein sequences from a number of different databases....Anyone who deals with biochemical data would find this work of great value. Even an absolute novice to bioinformatics would, with a little practice, be able to retrieve and manage data." - The Biologist"This is exactly the kind of text that I have been looking for to support my bioinformatics teaching… To minimise the entry barrier for using bioinformatics, the author uses only free Web-based tools…There is really good coverage of the many flavours of BLAST, multiple sequence alignments and common tools for DNA and protein sequence analysis, with clear and interesting worked examples and critical analysis of outputs." - Microbiology Today "This well-written book, replete with helpful illustrations, provides a valuable introduction to the field of bioinformatics....It also will be extremely useful for scientists whose biological training predated the Internet or for scientists in related disciplines who develop an interest in bioinformatics....This book is truly practical in that one can read it independently, performing the exercises on one’s own computer…Well written and easy to follow, this book provides an excellent foundation for anyone interested in the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. It is well suited for the undergraduate classroom, as well as for those scientists new to the field of bioinformatics." - Doody

• 1. Introduction to Bioinformatics and Sequence Analysis2. Introduction to Internet Resources3. Introduction to the BLAST Suite and BLASTN4. Protein BLAST: BLASTP5. Cross-Molecular Searches: BLASTX and TBLASTN6. Advanced Topics in BLAST7. Bioinformatics Tools for the Laboratory8. Protein Analysis9. Explorations of Short Nucleotide Sequences10. MicroRNAs11. Multiple Sequence Alignments12. Browsing the GenomeAppendix: Formatting Your ReportAbbreviationsGlossaryWeb Resources

Michael Agostino received his PhD in molecular biology from Roswell Park, a division of SUNY at Buffalo, New York. He did genetic engineering laboratory research for 13 years before making the formal switch to bioinformatics, working at GlaxoSmithKline, Genetics Institute, and Pfizer for over 33 years. At those companies he worked with other scientists, providing sequence analysis support for projects too numerous to count. Michael is now an instructor for Harvard Extension School, where, for 10 years, he has been teaching a course largely based on this book.

Reviews for the First Edition:“This is one of the most well written and well organized books on bioinformatics that I have come across. The chapters and concepts are arranged in order of complexity and the writing is easy to understand. This is an excellent introductory book for bioinformatics, yet it contains enough detail to help both a serious researcher as well as a beginner in the field.” - Science Books & Film"This textbook would be useful to any biologist, as its chapters span RNA sequencing to protein analysis to miRNA target prediction. It is hard to think of a database currently available online on which this text does not include a detailed tutorial....it made bioinformatics appealing to learn about, as some pages contained highlighted boxes of interesting facts about the history of sequencing, biology, or various discoveries....Practical Bioinformatics will be invaluable to the general researcher or student..." - Yale Journal of Bioogy and Medicine"The book is well laid out, focusing initially on finding and manipulating single DNA or protein sequences from a number of different databases....Anyone who deals with biochemical data would find this work of great value. Even an absolute novice to bioinformatics would, with a little practice, be able to retrieve and manage data." - The Biologist"This is exactly the kind of text that I have been looking for to support my bioinformatics teaching… To minimise the entry barrier for using bioinformatics, the author uses only free Web-based tools…There is really good coverage of the many flavours of BLAST, multiple sequence alignments and common tools for DNA and protein sequence analysis, with clear and interesting worked examples and critical analysis of outputs." - Microbiology Today "This well-written book, replete with helpful illustrations, provides a valuable introduction to the field of bioinformatics....It also will be extremely useful for scientists whose biological training predated the Internet or for scientists in related disciplines who develop an interest in bioinformatics....This book is truly practical in that one can read it independently, performing the exercises on one’s own computer…Well written and easy to follow, this book provides an excellent foundation for anyone interested in the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. It is well suited for the undergraduate classroom, as well as for those scientists new to the field of bioinformatics." - Doody

• 1. Introduction to Bioinformatics and Sequence Analysis2. Introduction to Internet Resources3. Introduction to the BLAST Suite and BLASTN4. Protein BLAST: BLASTP5. Cross-Molecular Searches: BLASTX and TBLASTN6. Advanced Topics in BLAST7. Bioinformatics Tools for the Laboratory8. Protein Analysis9. Explorations of Short Nucleotide Sequences10. MicroRNAs11. Multiple Sequence Alignments12. Browsing the GenomeAppendix: Formatting Your ReportAbbreviationsGlossaryWeb Resources

Michael Agostino received his PhD in molecular biology from Roswell Park, a division of SUNY at Buffalo, New York. He did genetic engineering laboratory research for 13 years before making the formal switch to bioinformatics, working at GlaxoSmithKline, Genetics Institute, and Pfizer for over 33 years. At those companies he worked with other scientists, providing sequence analysis support for projects too numerous to count. Michael is now an instructor for Harvard Extension School, where, for 10 years, he has been teaching a course largely based on this book.

Reviews for the First Edition:“This is one of the most well written and well organized books on bioinformatics that I have come across. The chapters and concepts are arranged in order of complexity and the writing is easy to understand. This is an excellent introductory book for bioinformatics, yet it contains enough detail to help both a serious researcher as well as a beginner in the field.” - Science Books & Film"This textbook would be useful to any biologist, as its chapters span RNA sequencing to protein analysis to miRNA target prediction. It is hard to think of a database currently available online on which this text does not include a detailed tutorial....it made bioinformatics appealing to learn about, as some pages contained highlighted boxes of interesting facts about the history of sequencing, biology, or various discoveries....Practical Bioinformatics will be invaluable to the general researcher or student..." - Yale Journal of Bioogy and Medicine"The book is well laid out, focusing initially on finding and manipulating single DNA or protein sequences from a number of different databases....Anyone who deals with biochemical data would find this work of great value. Even an absolute novice to bioinformatics would, with a little practice, be able to retrieve and manage data." - The Biologist"This is exactly the kind of text that I have been looking for to support my bioinformatics teaching… To minimise the entry barrier for using bioinformatics, the author uses only free Web-based tools…There is really good coverage of the many flavours of BLAST, multiple sequence alignments and common tools for DNA and protein sequence analysis, with clear and interesting worked examples and critical analysis of outputs." - Microbiology Today "This well-written book, replete with helpful illustrations, provides a valuable introduction to the field of bioinformatics....It also will be extremely useful for scientists whose biological training predated the Internet or for scientists in related disciplines who develop an interest in bioinformatics....This book is truly practical in that one can read it independently, performing the exercises on one’s own computer…Well written and easy to follow, this book provides an excellent foundation for anyone interested in the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. It is well suited for the undergraduate classroom, as well as for those scientists new to the field of bioinformatics." - Doody

• 1. Introduction to Bioinformatics and Sequence Analysis2. Introduction to Internet Resources3. Introduction to the BLAST Suite and BLASTN4. Protein BLAST: BLASTP5. Cross-Molecular Searches: BLASTX and TBLASTN6. Advanced Topics in BLAST7. Bioinformatics Tools for the Laboratory8. Protein Analysis9. Explorations of Short Nucleotide Sequences10. MicroRNAs11. Multiple Sequence Alignments12. Browsing the GenomeAppendix: Formatting Your ReportAbbreviationsGlossaryWeb Resources