Human Molecular Genetics

HMG3 is a great book for those looking to review the large and growing field of human molecular genetics. It lacks the molecular biological detail that dedicated textbooks such as MBOC contain, but has a large amount of useful information regarding experimental approaches in human molecular genetics, and clinical ramifications of basic science research. I have found it an ideal core reference for graduate work in human genetics.

Though I have been interested in molecular genetics for decades, I have been out-of-touch with the excitement in genetics that is percolating out of the huge amount of data coming from various genome sequencing projects. Want to know why there is so much excitement? Then I suggest you read this book. The book is up-to-date not only with the latest information about what is happenning in molecular genetics, with a focus on human genetics, but also with the latest molecular biology methods needed to understand the field. Anyone with a basic biochemistry background could pick up this book and get a lot out of it, though the more statistics you know the better you will understand components on linkage analysis. I plan to use this book as a reference for my developing research interests in this field. When I am reading a paper or after listening to a presentation, I can go right to the information in this book to refresh my knowledge about the method or general thinking about a particular topic. The book adds to this experience by providing key references for just about any related subject covered in the book in a more general fashion. I will be reading these references in specific areas close to my interest.

This book offers an up-to-date view of molecular genetics and the functional laboratroy tools and theories used to address various inherited disorders. The language is very approachable and the book is wonderfully cross-referenced. New developments in various computational fields are addressed and key websites are given for data analysis so that the interested reader can familiarize himself with these tools. I found this book very helpful for both an introduction and subsequent in depth analysis of various topics. The referenced articles are seminal papers and are a wonderful addition to yoour library. Highly recommended and essential for beginners in health professions, graduate students, and biomedical researchers.

This book is a very complete overview of molecular biology as applied to human genetics. As someone interested in bioinformatics and computational biology, I read it to get a background in the biology/genetics behind these fields. That being said, I was glad I made the choice of this book as the authors do a fine job of explaining the relevant concepts and biological processes in genetics. In the light of the recent draft of the human genome, this edition of the book is especially timely. That being said, there is a lot of material covered, and to digest all of the terms and processes outlined takes a fair amount of time. The discussion on functional genomics and the post-genome sequencing era was particularly interesting. More could be said on gene sequencing validation as it applies to gene therapies and drug discovery. The most fascinating chapter was the one on genetic manipulation of animals as this is where genetic engineering has had its successful proving ground. Even though this is a science text, a discussion on the ethics of human genetic engineering would be appropriate, given some of the current attitudes about it. My opinion is that these technologies should move ahead with diligence; humankind cannot afford not to do so. I would highly recommend this book to those who have the time to read through it, as it offers the necessary concepts needed to understand this fascinating area.

Being a graduate student in human genetics I was looking long and hard for a comprehensive text on how and why experiment are done in the lab, and the scientific basis for these experiments. This book is the closest one I have seen that accomplishes all these goals. It is a little light on the theoretical side of genetics (e.g. Mendelian etc); however, there are many other texts out there that can substitute for this flaw, but only a few that do what this one does. I recommend this book for students who are familiar with genetics but need to understand the practical side to it.