Book recommendation for starting and advancing in Bioinformatics
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4.7 years ago
Faith ▴ 50

Should I buy Biostars books and courses? Or Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics 3rd Edition by Jonathan?

As a person willing to set a strong foot into bioinformatics field and continue in it in the long term.

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great book in my personal experience Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics

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4.7 years ago
GenoMax 147k

That is a personal decision, I will try to provide some context.

Biostars handbooks provide a practical introduction for doing specific kind of data analysis (bioinformatics has become a vast field and no one person is going to be able to become an expert in all areas). I am not familiar with the book you mention but if it is a text book it may provide a theoretical introduction to field (may still be useful). Bioinformatics is a rapidly changing field so once you have your basics squared away you may learn more by following online forums/publications.

Do you have an exceptionally strong programming (and enough biology) background (at least one language)? If not, you may want to start learning a programming language (python/R would be good choices) in parallel. Unlike 15-20 years ago when there were not many formal bioinformatics degree programs, there are plenty around the world now. You are going to be competing with the graduates of these programs for jobs/knowledge/opportunity.

If you have strong desire and application to do this it would be possible to do. But keep in mind that this may take time (as in > 1-2+ years) and you will need to be patient.

Note: I did read your other post and appreciate that you have unique personal challenges.

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I ... honestly want to show appreciation in any way than just typing thank you ! But thank you so much especially for leaving that note there, I will be doing my best... I hope I could find you around if I needed more help.

Also I have just enrolled into harvard's Biochemistry course so I won't be buying anything anytime soon, the book i mentioned above I already got a copy from one of the online professors who wanted to help, so I will just invest in it.

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4.7 years ago

If you've got a bit of R and you are comfortable with a range of biological ideas, I'd suggest having a look at "Modern Statistics for Modern Biologist". The online version is available for free here http://web.stanford.edu/class/bios221/book/index.html

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4.7 years ago

If you want to improve both your programming skills and learn more about bioinformatics concepts then I recommend Rosalind: http://rosalind.info/problems/locations/

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Will do, thank you !

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