Python For Biologists

Python for biologists is a complete programming course for beginners that will give you the skills you need to tackle common biological and bioinformatics problems.

This book introduces Python as a powerful tool for the investigation of problems in computational biology, for novices and experienced programmers alike.

Hands-on Data Science for Biologists using Python has been conceptualized to address the massive data handling needs of modern-day biologists. With the advent of high throughput technologies and consequent availability of omics data, biological science has become a data-intensive field. This hands-on textbook has been written with the inception of easing data analysis by providing an interactive, problem-based instructional approach in Python programming language. The book starts with an introduction to Python and steadily delves into scrupulous techniques of data handling, preprocessing, and visualization. The book concludes with machine learning algorithms and their applications in biological data science. Each topic has an intuitive explanation of concepts and is accompanied with biological examples. Features of this book: The book contains standard templates for data analysis using Python, suitable for beginners as well as advanced learners. This book shows working implementations of data handling and machine learning algorithms using real-life biological datasets and problems, such as gene expression analysis; disease prediction; image recognition; SNP association with phenotypes and diseases. Considering the importance of visualization for data interpretation, especially in biological systems, there is a dedicated chapter for the ease of data visualization and plotting. Every chapter is designed to be interactive and is accompanied with Jupyter notebook to prompt readers to practice in their local systems. Other avant-garde component of the book is the inclusion of a machine learning project, wherein various machine learning algorithms are applied for the identification of genes associated with age-related disorders. A systematic understanding of data analysis steps has always been an important element for biological research. This book is a readily accessible resource that can be used as a handbook for data analysis, as well as a platter of standard code templates for building models.

Computing is revolutionizing the practice of biology. This book, which assumes no prior computing experience, provides students with the tools to write their own Python programs and to understand fundamental concepts in computational biology and bioinformatics. Each major part of the book begins with a compelling biological question, followed by the algorithmic ideas and programming tools necessary to explore it: the origins of pathogenicity are examined using gene finding, the evolutionary history of sex determination systems is studied using sequence alignment, and the origin of modern humans is addressed using phylogenetic methods. In addition to providing general programming skills, this book explores the design of efficient algorithms, simulation, NP-hardness, and the maximum likelihood method, among other key concepts and methods. Easy-to-read and designed to equip students with the skills to write programs for solving a range of biological problems, the book is accompanied by numerous programming exercises, available at www.cs.hmc.edu/CFB.

A concise introduction to key computing skills for biologists While biological data continues to grow exponentially in size and quality, many of today’s biologists are not trained adequately in the computing skills necessary for leveraging this information deluge. In Computing Skills for Biologists, Stefano Allesina and Madlen Wilmes present a valuable toolbox for the effective analysis of biological data. Based on the authors’ experiences teaching scientific computing at the University of Chicago, this textbook emphasizes the automation of repetitive tasks and the construction of pipelines for data organization, analysis, visualization, and publication. Stressing practice rather than theory, the book’s examples and exercises are drawn from actual biological data and solve cogent problems spanning the entire breadth of biological disciplines, including ecology, genetics, microbiology, and molecular biology. Beginners will benefit from the many examples explained step-by-step, while more seasoned researchers will learn how to combine tools to make biological data analysis robust and reproducible. The book uses free software and code that can be run on any platform. Computing Skills for Biologists is ideal for scientists wanting to improve their technical skills and instructors looking to teach the main computing tools essential for biology research in the twenty-first century. Excellent resource for acquiring comprehensive computing skills Both novice and experienced scientists will increase efficiency by building automated and reproducible pipelines for biological data analysis Code examples based on published data spanning the breadth of biological disciplines Detailed solutions provided for exercises in each chapter Extensive companion website

Treat yourself to a lively, intuitive, and easy-to-follow introduction to computer programming in Python. The book was written specifically for biologists with little or no prior experience of writing code - with the goal of giving them not only a foundation in Python programming, but also the confidence and inspiration to start using Python in their own research. Virtually all of the examples in the book are drawn from across a wide spectrum of life science research, from simple biochemical calculations and sequence analysis, to modeling the dynamic interactions of genes and proteins in cells, or the drift of genes in an evolving population. Best of all, Python for the Life Sciences shows you how to implement all of these projects in Python, one of the most popular programming languages for scientific computing. If you are a life scientist interested in learning Python to jump-start your research, this is the book for you. What You'll Learn Write Python scripts to automate your lab calculations Search for important motifs in genome sequences Use object-oriented programming with Python Study mining interaction network data for patterns Review dynamic modeling of biochemical switches Who This Book Is For Life scientists with little or no programming experience, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers in academia and industry, medical professionals, and teachers/lecturers. “A comprehensive introduction to using Python for computational biology... A lovely book with humor and perspective” -- John Novembre, Associate Professor of Human Genetics, University of Chicago and MacArthur Fellow “Fun, entertaining, witty and darn useful. A magical portal to the big data revolution” -- Sandro Santagata, Assistant Professor in Pathology, Harvard Medical School “Alex and Gordon’s enthusiasm for Python is contagious” -- Glenys Thomson Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Advanced Python for Biologists is a programming course for workers in biology and bioinformatics who want to develop their programming skills. It starts with the basic Python knowledge outlined in Python for Biologists and introduces advanced Python tools and techniques with biological examples. You'll learn: - How to use object-oriented programming to model biological entities - How to write more robust code and programs by using Python's exception system - How to test your code using the unit testing framework - How to transform data using Python's comprehensions - How to write flexible functions and applications using functional programming - How to use Python's iteration framework to extend your own object and functions Advanced Python for Biologists is written with an emphasis on practical problem-solving and uses everyday biological examples throughout. Each section contains exercises along with solutions and detailed discussion.

In today's data driven biology, programming knowledge is essential in turning ideas into testable hypothesis. Based on the author’s extensive experience, Python for Bioinformatics, Second Edition helps biologists get to grips with the basics of software development. Requiring no prior knowledge of programming-related concepts, the book focuses on the easy-to-use, yet powerful, Python computer language. This new edition is updated throughout to Python 3 and is designed not just to help scientists master the basics, but to do more in less time and in a reproducible way. New developments added in this edition include NoSQL databases, the Anaconda Python distribution, graphical libraries like Bokeh, and the use of Github for collaborative development.