No comments about Primitive Classification.

No comments about The Biochemistry of Human Nutrition: A Desk Reference (Health Science).

5 comments about Principles of Medical Biochemistry.

1. The author, Dr. Meisenberg, actually teaches Biochemistry at the medical school I attend. I found the text very well formatted and the illustrations extremely helpful. I personally read this book from cover to cover and along with the BRS, I think Biochemistry doesn't have to be a painful experience. Meisenberg integrates metabolism and other important subjects into several chapters to re-emphasize key points over and over. Many elaborate illustrations and graphs make learning hard to remember facts easier, and with the help of pertinent biochemical clinical facts you'll soon find relevance in a clinical setting far from the classroom.



2. I too was taught by Dr. Meisenberg, which he teaches at a Caribbean Medical School, Ross. First of all, he has a very strong accent to understand in the class. Second, I did not find the book to be written well. Third, the other professors who also taught my biochem class stated that there was some errors and information missing. Personally, I would suggest Basic Approach to BioChem,(which was suggested by one of the other biochem teachers to me) if you are like me and struggled in undergrad with chem & organic chemistry. It spells out everything also another good Biochem that helped me get through this course was Lippincott's Biochemistry...a good book too.



3. EXCELLENT BOOK I STRONGLY RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE INTERESTED ON THE SUBJECT



4. the visual illastrations are almost non existant and the book was extreamly disorganized, for example, he will discuss a topic in one chapter, then talk about something else, then go back to it in another chapter. I would go with Voet, lipincott and BRs biochem



5. This book is designed to educate medical students. It is easy and if you do the questions at the end of the chapters it helps you have a sound foundation of medical biochemistry. It is CLINICALLY oriented!!!

1 comments about Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution.

1. I think this is one of the best books I have read on molecular evolution. The explanations are lucid. Easy to understand examples are given in increasing order of complexity.
   The book is not restricted to molecular evolution itself but covers a wide range of topics. I highly recommend it!

2 comments about Principles of Regenerative Medicine.

1. In the history of scientific literature, especially in the life sciences, there have been a few books that have endured. One was Wilson's Cytology, the other was Dan Mazia's book that established cell biology. The third is this one. Atala and his gang have conspired to compose a dazzling array of facts and factoids about the recurrent problem of biological strategies for healing tissues. While that odious term "stem cells" as opposed to the less emotional "multipotent progenitor cells or MPC" is used with abandon, the purpose of the book is to establish regenerative medicine as a legitimate endeavor. The authors have completed a monumental feat in getting so many contributors to deliver manuscripts on time, and for managing to cover a vast amount of the scientific landscape. Of course. the wary reader will find items of oversight eg, endogenous retroviruses in human and mouse cells, or rigid cytological characterization of the so called "stem cell lines" promoted by a high official who has never studied biology, even at Yale.
   I recommend this hefty book to almost any one who has ever wondered about regrowing an amputated thumb or who actually did study biology.



2. Who would have believed that you could capture the state of this (art) science so well in just 1,448 pages? But that is exactly what the contributors to this book have pulled off. What's more, the editors did a profoundly apt job of mixing the basic biology, biomaterials science and (stem) cell therapy aspects of regenerative medicine. Indeed, the reader is provided a well-integrated vision of this multi-disciplinary field. In terms of star power, well, most everyone who is anyone in this area was a contributor to the work. The book touches on tissue engineering of systems you would expect (Genitourinary, Cardiac and Alimentary systems etc) and some you haven't even thought of lately and in its completeness, there is even a section on Regulations and Ethics. While this book would not be accessible to a medical neophyte, anyone with a working knowledge of anatomy and cell physiology will be able to work out any gaps in understanding with some effort. Let's just say I had to hit Wikipedia a few times while working through this excellent book.
   
   Stephen Quinn, CEO
   Ratner BioMedical Inc.

1 comments about Binding and Kinetics for Molecular Biologists.

1. In the first sentence this books says: 'seeing is believing but measuring is knowing.' And that's a pretty good summation of the book with is generally concerned with making quantitative measurements of biological binding reactions. It is intended to provide a resource or teaching tool that explains quantitative measurements in a manner that can easily be applied to experimental research, classroom teaching and/or understanding the work of other scientists.
   
   Having said that, it is important to also say that this is not a book of 'cookbook' experiments for a student. Instead it is a discussion of the types of experiments that might be run, and even more important on the analysis of the data obtained so that the experimental results can be clearly understood.
   
   A companion web site kinetics.cshl.edu goes with the book and compliments the material presented in the book. The web site also has a collection of Web-based simulations that can be manipulated to visualize important concepts presented in the chapters. They afford a better understanding of binding and rate curves and fitting data.

2 comments about Evaluation of Enzyme Inhibitors in Drug Discovery: A Guide for Medicinal Chemists and Pharmacologists (Methods of Biochemical Analysis).

1. Books and reviews on drug design are often disappointing, but Evaluation of Enzyme Inhibitors in Drug Discovery is excellent; it is a book that should be on the shelves of anyone involved in rational drug development, and available to anyone interested in understanding how successful drugs work. It starts by explaining why enzymes are appropriate targets for a drug design in the first place, and goes on to emphasize that inhibiting an enzyme and producing the intended effect on the whole organism is not a trivial matter. As the author remarks, "dogmatic arguments that lead to a priori predictions of what will work best in a biological context more often than not reflect an incomplete understanding".
   
   If rational drug design is ever to become a reality it will involve knowledge of much more than three-dimensional structure, though this sometimes seems to be the only aspect considered. It requires, of course, knowledge of the different kinds of inhibition and how the inhibitor affects enzyme activity at different concentrations of substrates and products. In addition, it requires some knowledge of the metabolic context in which the inhibited enzyme is embedded: if it has almost no flux control then inhibiting it -- even to a high degree -- may have almost no effect on the flux through it (though it may still have large effects on the metabolite concentrations around it). finally it requires understanding of what makes some molecules "drug-like", and others not: it is no use identifying a superb inhibitor of the ideal enzyme if there is no way of delivering it to the target. Copeland deals with all of these points, and others, in an appropriately elementary way. Apart from giving much more information about inhibition than he did in Enzymes (Wiley-Interscience, 2000), here he takes a more leisurely pace and the book should not offer any serious difficulty to anyone wanting to master the subject.
   
   As the author explains, there is much more to enzyme inhibition than just competitive inhibition: some successful drugs are indeed competitive inhibitors, Methotrexate and Viagra among them, but others are not; Finasteride, for example, used for treating benign hypertrophy of the prostate, is an uncompetitive inhibitor of steroid 5alpha-reductase. Classifying inhibitors thus needs more than crude measures of IC50 values, and if these are used at all they need to be used in conjunction with knowledge of how they relate to inhibition constants.
   
   Analysis of the kind set out in the book is essential for understanding why enzyme inhibitors work as drugs, but the sceptical reader may wonder how much of it is post hoc rationalization, and how much was actually used for discovering the drugs. Let us consider the 26 enzyme inhibitors that have become successful drugs that are listed in Chapter 1, from Acetazolamide, an inhibitor of carbonic anhydrase used to treat glaucoma, to Viagra, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase that is now familiar to everyone. Modern Drug Discovery claimed in 1998 that "Viagra was discovered using a rational drug design approach", but was it? It was not originally conceived as a drug for treating erectile dysfunction, and its usefulness for this discovered almost by chance when it was noticed that some men who participated in clinical trials as a treatment for angina pectoris reported unexpected effects. Even as an inhibitor for phosphodiesterase, Viagra was found by making variations on the structure of Zaprinast, a weak inhibitor that had failed to become a useful anti-allergy treatment. There is little in this history to suggest rational drug design.
   
   There are many good points about this book, but it is often difficult to find them, because the index is very poor. For example, there is a discussion of the characteristics of "drug-like" molecules (Lipinski's rules, etc.), but don't expect to learn this from the index; the only way to find it is to leaf through the pages. Fortunately it comes early in the book, but there are other equally important and equally secret topics later on. In other respects this is a fine achievement, a book that can be enthusiastically recommended.



2. I have found this book very useful. If you have to use enzyme kinetics, and analyze the data, then you really should have this book. That it is recommended by Prof Cornish-Bowden attests to its accuracy.
   Personally I find this topic difficult, but this book is well written, and I have a much better understanding of kinetics after getting this book.

3 comments about Experiments in Biochemistry: A Hands-on Approach.

1. We teach a mixed class, chemistry, biology and pre-med majors. This book covers introductory topics that the chemists find easy but biology majors need to review (statistics, Beer's Law, etc.) Later, it covers molecular biology techniques that biologists are familiar with but chemistry majors are not! it is the best for a mixed class. It is clear and gives enough background that students can read it on their own and come prepared for lab....I have found no mistakes in the text.



2. The book I purchased from them was not in the condition as stated. Multiple pages were missing in various sections, and water stains covered half the book. I also had to contact the seller many times before they respond to my complaints. I do not recommend business with them.



3. Ordered the book on the 27th of December and received it on the 29th of December. Excellent service by perfectprime2001. The book is in great condition and am looking forward to using it!

1 comments about Introduction to the Cellular and Molecular Biology of Cancer.

1. I'm a mathematics Ph.D. student who's working in computational oncology, meaning that I study cancer from a mathematical/engineering point of view (conservation of mass, oxygen and glucose transport, etc.) and create computer models for study. This biophysical viewpoint has been fruitful, but I've found that to make further progress, an understanding of the cellular biology is required. Furthermore, a lack of vocabulary makes it difficult to communicate with the clinical/medical community.
   
   That's where this book comes in: it gives a great, expansive overview of cancer that is difficult to come by in the mathematical world. In places, it is perhaps too detail-oriented (which specific proteins do what and how, e.g., in DNA repair), but that's the nature of the beast, and I feel that it's very important for mathematical biologists to be exposed to this. The text gives a good sampling ranging from epidemiology, genetics and epigenetics (gene expression), oncogenes, tumor suppresor genes, DNA repair, cell cycle, and most approaches to therapy.
   
   Because this edition was published in late 2005, it's quite up-to-date, and in that regard, the papers cited are very useful to the student and researcher for further exploration and paper writing. Probably one of the greater weaknesses is in the figures in the earlier genetics sections: the diagrams are not particularly helpful in actually illustrating the complex processes. Overall, though, this has been very helpful for me in bridging the gap between mathematical biology and oncology. I'd highly recommend this text for anybody who desires to learn more about the biology of the cancer, regardless of where they're coming from.

5 comments about Basic Concepts in Biochemistry: A Student's Survival Guide.

1. Great help for those of us who aren't scientists by nature. If you're struggling with your textbook I recommend this as a good supplement - especially right before exam time! Not detailed enough to skip class though, but worth the time and money.



2. I did not find this book helpful at all. Only for lazy students who do not want to study!!!



3. for people like me who have short term memory, it's great to be able to remember biochemistry in 10 min.



4. I did not find this book very helpful at all, and I actually found reading a longer text, such as Voet et al., less time consuming.



5. I was amazed at the price for this paperback. It is interesting in content and a pleasant surprise is the inclusion of thermodynamics/kinetics of enzyme substrate interactions. A nice review for anyone who learned the material once and needs a quick reference but not enough detail for a college exam.
   Amusingly, I found this book in the JUNIOR section of my public library and the circulation specialist told me it was justified because junior includes up to eighteen years old. I'm still laughing because Biochemistry is an advanced undergraduate course, and the organic chemistry prerequisites for university level is appropriate. The book is useful, but overpriced for a small paperback. It should be no more than $20 new.