Structural Bioinformatics

From the Foreword "[A] must read for all of us committed to understanding the interplayof structure and function...[T]he individual chapters outline the suiteof major basic life science questions such as the status of effortsto predict protein structure and how proteins carry out cellularfunctions, and also the applied life science questions such as howstructural bioinformatics can improve health care through acceleratingdrug discovery."This book provides a basic understanding of the theories, associated algorithms, resources, and tools used in structural bioinformatics. The reader emerges with the ability to make effective use of protein, DNA, RNA, carbohydrate, and complex structures to better understand biological function. Moreover, it draws a clear connection between structural studies and the rational design of new therapies.

<b>PHILIP E. BOURNE</b> is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California San Diego and Director of Integrated Biosciences at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. He is also currently the President of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). Dr. Bourne is the author of over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers and three previous books. <p> <b>HELGE WEISSIG</b> is a Project Leader in Bioinformatics at ActivX Biosciences, a proteomics company, and also co-coordinates the Bioinformatics Certificate program for UCSD Extension. After doing his post-doctoral work with Prof. Bourne at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, he became the Technical Project Manager for the RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB) at UCSD.