Despite what you may have read in the popular press and in social media, Precision Medicine is not devoted to finding unique treatments for individuals, based on analyzing their DNA. To the contrary, the goal of Precision Medicine is to find general treatments that are highly effective for large numbers of individuals who fall into precisely diagnosed groups. We now know that every disease develops over time, through a sequence of defined biological steps, and that these steps may differ among individuals, based on genetic and environmental conditions. We are currently developing rational therapies and preventive measures, based on our precise understanding of the steps leading to the clinical expression of diseases. Precision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease explains the scientific breakthroughs that have changed the way that we understand diseases, and reveals how medical scientists are using this new knowledge to launch a medical revolution. - Clarifies the foundational concepts of Precision Medicine, distinguishing this field from its predecessors such as genomics, pharmacogenetics, and personalized medicine - Gathers the chief conceptual advances in the fields of genetics, pathology, and bioinformatics, and synthesizes a coherent narrative for the field of Precision Medicine - Delivers its message in plain language, and in a relaxed, conversational writing style, making it easy to understand the complex subject matter - Guides the reader through a coherent and logical narrative, gradually providing expertise and skills along the way - Covers the importance of data sharing in Precision Medicine, and the many data-related challenges that confront this fragile new field

Taxonomic Guide to Infectious Diseases: Understanding the Biologic Classes of Pathogenic Organisms, Second Edition tackles the complexity of clinical microbiology by assigning every infectious organism to one of 40+ taxonomic classes and providing a description of the defining traits that apply to all the organisms within each class. This edition is an updated, revised and greatly expanded guide to the classes of organisms that infect humans. This book will provide students and clinicians alike with a simplified way to understand the complex fields of clinical microbiology and parasitology. - Focuses on human disease processes and includes numerous clinical tips for healthcare providers - Describes the principles of classification and explains why the science of taxonomy is vital to the fields of bioinformatics and modern disease research - Provides images of prototypical organisms for taxonomic classes - Includes a section that lists common taxonomic pitfalls and how they can be avoided

Evolution's Clinical Guidebook: Translating Ancient Genes into Precision Medicine demonstrates, through well-documented examples, how an understanding of the phylogenetic ancestry of humans allows us to make sense out of the flood of genetic data streaming from modern laboratories and how it can lead us to new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases. Topics cover evolution and human genome, meiosis and other recombinants events, embryology, speciation, phylogeny, rare and common diseases, and the evolution of aging. This book is a valuable source for bioinformaticians and those in the biomedical field who need knowledge, down to gene level, to fully comprehend currently available data. - Offers an innovative approach, focusing on how disease-associated pathways evolved - Explains how the fields of phylogeny and embryology have become closely tied to the fields of genetics and bioinformatics - Demonstrates how students and biomedical professionals can apply the knowledge obtained in this book to the theory and practice of precision medicine

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is the process by which we draw inferences from facts. Volume I of Logic and Critical Thinking in the Biomedical Sciences invites readers to linger over a collection of common observations to see what inferences can be drawn, when one applies a bit of deductive logic. If we just think about what we observe, it is often possible to discover profound biomedical insights.Volumes 1 and 2 of Logic and Critical Thinking in the Biomedical Sciences are written for biomedical scientists and college-level students engaged in any of the life sciences, including bioinformatics and related data sciences. - Provides a strong introduction to deductive methods that can be directly applied to the biomedical sciences - Using hundreds of examples, shows how creative scientists draw important inferences from observations that are often ignored by their peers - Discusses complex biological and medical concepts in a relaxed manner, intended to focus the reader's attention on the deductive process, without dwelling excessively on details

Principles and Practice of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information, Second Edition updates and expands on the first edition, bringing a set of techniques and algorithms that are tailored to Big Data projects. The book stresses the point that most data analyses conducted on large, complex data sets can be achieved without the use of specialized suites of software (e.g., Hadoop), and without expensive hardware (e.g., supercomputers). The core of every algorithm described in the book can be implemented in a few lines of code using just about any popular programming language (Python snippets are provided). Through the use of new multiple examples, this edition demonstrates that if we understand our data, and if we know how to ask the right questions, we can learn a great deal from large and complex data collections. The book will assist students and professionals from all scientific backgrounds who are interested in stepping outside the traditional boundaries of their chosen academic disciplines. - Presents new methodologies that are widely applicable to just about any project involving large and complex datasets - Offers readers informative new case studies across a range scientific and engineering disciplines - Provides insights into semantics, identification, de-identification, vulnerabilities and regulatory/legal issues - Utilizes a combination of pseudocode and very short snippets of Python code to show readers how they may develop their own projects without downloading or learning new software

Classification Made Relevant: How Scientists Build and Use Classifications and Ontologies explains how classifications and ontologies are designed and used to analyze scientific information. The book presents the fundamentals of classification, leading up to a description of how computer scientists use object-oriented programming languages to model classifications and ontologies. Numerous examples are chosen from the Classification of Life, the Periodic Table of the Elements, and the symmetry relationships contained within the Classification Theorem of Finite Simple Groups. When these three classifications are tied together, they provide a relational hierarchy connecting all of the natural sciences. The book's chapters introduce and describe general concepts that can be understood by any intelligent reader. With each new concept, they follow practical examples selected from various scientific disciplines. In these cases, technical points and specialized vocabulary are linked to glossary items where the item is clarified and expanded. - Explains the theory and practice of classification, emphasizing the importance of classifications and ontologies to the modern fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine - Includes numerous real-world examples that demonstrate how bad construction technique can destroy the value of classifications and ontologies - Explains how we define and understand the relationships among the classes within a classification and how the properties of a class are inherited by its subclasses - Describes ontologies and how they differ from classifications and explains conditions under which ontologies are useful