There is growing enthusiasm in the scientific community about the prospect of mapping and sequencing the human genome, a monumental project that will have far-reaching consequences for medicine, biology, technology, and other fields. But how will such an effort be organized and funded? How will we develop the new technologies that are needed? What new legal, social, and ethical questions will be raised? Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome is a blueprint for this proposed project. The authors offer a highly readable explanation of the technical aspects of genetic mapping and sequencing, and they recommend specific interim and long-range research goals, organizational strategies, and funding levels. They also outline some of the legal and social questions that might arise and urge their early consideration by policymakers.
Introduction to Genetics: A Molecular Approach is a new textbook for first and second year undergraduates. It first presents molecular structures and mechanisms before introducing the more challenging concepts and terminology associated with transmission genetics.
The laws of inheritance were considered quite superficial until 1903, when the chromosome theory of heredity was established by Sutton and Boveri. The discovery of the double helix and the genetic code led to our understanding of gene structure and function. For the past quarter of a century, remarkable progress has been made in the characterization of the human genome in order to search for coherent views of genes. The unit of inheritance termed factor or gene, once upon a time thought to be a trivial an imaginary entity, is now perceived clearly as the precise unit of inheritance that has continually deluged us with amazement by its complex identity and behaviour, sometimes bypassing the university of Mendel's law. The aim of the fifth volume, entitled Genes and Genomes, is to cover the topics ranging from the structure of DNA itself to the structure of the complete genome, along with everything in between, encompassing 12 chapters. These chapters relate much of the information accumulated on the role of DNA in the organization of genes and genomes per se. Several distinguished scientists, all pre-eminent authorities in each field to share their expertise. Obviously, since the historical report on the double helix configuration in 1953, voluminous reports on the meteoric advances in genetics have been accumulated, and to cover every account in a single volume format would be a Herculean task. Therefore, only a few topics are chosen, which are of great interest to molecular geneticists. This volume is intended for advanced graduate students who would wish to keep abreast with the most recent trends in genome biology.
The Principles of Biology sequence (BI 211, 212 and 213) introduces biology as a scientific discipline for students planning to major in biology and other science disciplines. Laboratories and classroom activities introduce techniques used to study biological processes and provide opportunities for students to develop their ability to conduct research.
The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell! From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle). “Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns “Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices. “Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome. “A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).
Recombinant DNA, Third Edition, is an essential text for undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses in Genomics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Recombinant DNA, Genetic Engineering, Human Genetics, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics. The Third Edition of this landmark text offers an authoritative, accessible, and engaging introduction to modern, genome-centered biology from its foremost practitioners. The new edition explores core concepts in molecular biology in a contemporary inquiry-based context, building its coverage around the most relevant and exciting examples of current research and landmark experiments that redefined our understanding of DNA. As a result, students learn how working scientists make real high-impact discoveries. The first chapters provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of genetics and genomics, an inside look at the Human Genome Project, bioinformatic and experimental techniques for large-scale genomic studies, and a survey of epigenetics and RNA interference. The final chapters cover the quest to identify disease-causing genes, the genetic basis of cancer, and DNA fingerprinting and forensics. In these chapters the authors provide examples of practical applications in human medicine, and discuss the future of human genetics and genomics projects.
