Molecular Cell Biology

What Hacker News says

1. epguiDec 2021
   Absolutely, I have quite a few I'd recommend. If you tell me more about your background and what you're looking for, I can refine my recommendations further.

   Either way, the first thing you have to know is that it's a huge huge field, and you won't find any single book that introduces you well to every subtopic (it's just impossible), and the amount of background/support knowledge you need in order to be able to fully and critically appreciate even basic research papers is pretty enormous.

   General biochem and cell bio:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Biochemistry-Reginald-H-Garrett/dp/13...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Harvey-Lodish-d...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Lehninger-Principles-Biochemistry-Davi...

   Biotech:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biotechnology-Principles-Ap...

   Cell signaling:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Cell-Signaling-Wendell-Lim/dp/0815342...

   Immunology:

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Janeways-Immunobiology-Paperback-Versi...

   - https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Inflammation-Charles-Ser...

   Microbiology:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Jawetz-Melnick-Adelbergs-Medical-Micr...

   - https://www.amazon.com/Microbiology-Laboratory-Fundamentals-...

   Embryology:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Developmental-Biology-Michael-J-F-Bar...

   Haematology:

   - https://www.amazon.com/Hematology-Clinical-Practice-Fifth-Me...

   Genetics and bioinformatics:

   - I actually have never found a great textbook, please let me know if you know of any.

   Anatomy & physiology (leaning more towards human & medical):

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Human-Anatomy-Physiology-Elaine-Marieb...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Guyton-Hall-Textbook-Medical-Physiolog...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Medical-Physiology-Walter-Boron-PhD-dp...

   Basic/general medicine (don't shoot me I'm trying to keep the list short and general):

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Robbins-Cotran-Pathologic-Basis-Diseas...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Cecil-Essentials-Medicine-Edward-FIDSA...

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Harrisons-Principles-Internal-Medicine...

   Neuroanatomy (deserves a mention, one of my all time favs):

   - https://www.amazon.ca/Neuroanatomy-through-Clinical-Cases-Bl...

   USMLE step 1 prep materials are surprisingly good outlines, but not great for an introduction on their own:

   - https://www.amazon.ca/First-USMLE-Step-Thirty-first/dp/12604...

   Cancer:

   - I don't know of any good textbooks on the subject, but once you have some of the fundamentals of biochem under your belt, start reading the papers referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hallmarks_of_Cancer

   Show morethread
2. red-indianMay 2016
   I recommend these biology books:

   Molecular Cell Biology - Lodish

   http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Harvey-Lodish/d...

   Molecular Biology of the Cell - Alberts

   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0815344325/

   Show morethread
3. p_hJul 2009
   I opted to take 2 intro to bioengineering courses during my computer engineering degree. We basically covered "Molecular Cell Biology" by Lodish. I really liked the courses. It was a bit hard getting used to reading the published papers, but I learned a lot.
   thread
4. jballancJun 2009
   Alberts is very often held as the "standard text" (much like Grey's in Anatomy, Atkins in Physical Chemistry, or SICP). I would also recommend "Molecular Genetics of Bacteria" by Snyder and Champness (http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Genetics-Bacteria-Snyder/dp/...). As you'd expect, it's very focused on Bacteria, but it's current and goes all the way from the basic to the very in-depth.

   Edit: Oh! And how could I forget Lodish (http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Harvey-Lodish/d...)? Also very good...

   Show morethread
5. keithwhorDec 2018
   When I was in undergrad I pretty much just read the textbooks directly and used Wikipedia for supplementary reading. I donate (nearly) every year to Wikipedia because I would not have graduated without it.

   This is the exact Molecular Cell Biology text we were assigned a decade ago (though I’d imagine it’s significantly updated now):

   https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Lodish/dp/0716...

   The first principles of a an education in biochemistry are roughly, (1) the central dogma: DNA (transcribed) -> RNA (translated) -> Protein. (2) basic principles of diffusion and chemical equilibria.

   Most biochemical systems do work by leveraging potential energy gradients across membranes. For example: there’s a lot of K+ on one side of a membrane, and very little on the other. If you selectively open a channel between the two compartments, we know that statistically the ion (K+) flow will be directionally towards where there’s less K+ (diffusion). Biochemical systems use natural properties of stochastic systems to do work: if we know K+ is traveling in one direction, you can imagine a flywheel of sorts positioned to turn that ion movement into useful energy (ion channels).

   The processes by which energy is transferred and utilized is pretty much the field of biochemistry in a nutshell.

   Show morethread
6. dekhnOct 2013
   GWAS is... well, GWAS is just a technique to find statistical correlations between genotypes and phenotypes. It's a very limited (powerful in one way, but limited in many others) way to approach the problem of "to what extent do mutations in DNA cause phenotype changes". It requires fairly large sample sizes to do reliably for diseases which don't have a really strong (mendelian or otherwise) signal, it's fairly poor at working with pairs or larger # of interactions between genes, can't do much with genes and the environment, and is a really simiplified model of how organismal biology works, anyway.

   there are a few issues with exome: 1) exome prep is a big issue in itself 2) exome leaves out large regions which are likely to be important in understanding many aspects of human biology

   At this point, I'm speculating:

   even whole genome sequence at relatively high coverage per individual * large # of individuals is likely to not explain all the aspects of organismal biology. There appears to be a fair amount of state that is transferred from a parent cell to a child cell during mitosis that is not expressed in our current DNA assemblies. The whole chromosomes themselves are complex, enormous structures that undergo massive rearrangements during the various phases of the cell cycle... yet are still capable of maintaining tons of epigenetic state. Very little or none of this is really being analyzed in a systematic or rigorous way, which is frustrating to see because, as somebody with a training in human molecular biology, all of this has been KNOWN FOR DECADES! I mean seriously, Chapter One of Molecular Cell Biology, please!

   Show morethread