Python for the Life Sciences

Written in a fun, accessible and engaging style, this book will introduce you to the Python language with fully worked examples of Python code drawn from all aspects of life sciences, including bioinformatics, structural biology, developmental biology, and evolutionary biology and ecology.
Using familiar examples designed specifically for life scientists, you'll learn the basics of the language from the very first chapters and progress from there. You'll find out how to use Python to automate lab calculations, search for gene promoter sequences, rotate a molecular bond, build a cellular toggle switch, model animal coat pattern formation, grow a virtual plant, simulate a flu epidemic, or evolve populations.

Python for the Life Sciences provides the tools, confidence and inspiration to start crafting your own Python solutions for the challenges you face in your research. If you are a life scientist interested in learning Python to jump-start your research, this book is 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