Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Second Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

The Neurobehavioral Unit of the Kennedy Krieger Institute has 16 hospital beds. Most of the patients are children who have been diagnosed with autism, and most engage in self-injurious behavior. They engage in self-biting, self-hitting, head-banging, and other destructive behaviors. In most cases, we do not understand the genetic contributions to such behaviors, limiting the available strategies for treatment. In my research, I am motivated to understand molecular changes that underlie childhood brain diseases. The field of bioinformatics provides tools we can use to understand disease processes through the analysis of molecular sequence data. More broadly, bioinformatics facilitates our understanding of the basic aspects of biology including development, metabolism, adaptation to the environment, genetics (e.g., the basis of individual differences), and evolution.

Since the publication of the first edition of this textbook in 2003, the fields of bioinformatics and genomics have grown explosively. In the preface to the first edition (2003) I noted that tens of billions of base pairs (gigabases) of DNA had been deposited in GenBank. Now in 2009 we are reaching tens of trillions (terabases) of DNA, presenting us with unprecedented challenges in how to store, analyze, and interpret sequence data. In this second edition I have made numerous changes to the content and organization of the book. All of the chapters are rewritten, and about 90% of the figures ...