Genetics and genomics

Genetics and genomics is an exciting area of scientific research, growing in its importance. It will let us learn more about us and help cure many diseases. A good recent book on this subject is “Genetics and Genomics” by  Tom Strachan, Judith Goodship and Patrick Chinnery.

If you want to stay updated, the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) makes available scientific research articles http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 

You may also want to check Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com

The OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man database) provides more information on single gene disorders http://www.omin.org

For even more info on gene disorders, the University of Washington’s Gene Reviews series are highly recommended and available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1116/

Other very useful resources.
SNP (pronounced ‘snip’) is the short term for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism.
The importance of SNPs comes from their ability to influence disease risk, drug efficacy and side-effects, tell you about your ancestry, and predict aspects of how you look and even act. SNPs are probably the most important category of genetic changes influencing common diseases. And in terms of common diseases, 9 of the top 10 leading causes of death have a genetic component and thus most likely one or more SNPs influence your risk.

The Rs1815739 SNP for example will tell you whether you are likely a sprinter or an endurance athlete.

OpenSNP is a non-profit, open-source project that is about sharing genetical and phenotypic information. You can find info on SNPs https://opensnp.org/

SNPedia is a wiki investigating human genetics. We share information about the effects of variations in DNA, citing peer-reviewed scientific publications. http://www.snpedia.com/

ClinVar aggregates information about genomic variation and its relationship to human health. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/

Genecards is a searchable, integrative database that provides comprehensive, user-friendly information on all annotated and predicted human genes. http://www.genecards.org/

Free online books at the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/

Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.org/

Data Science books

What is data science and what you need to know to be a data scientist?
Joel Grus, in his book writes “There’s a joke that says a data scientist is someone who knows more statistics than a computer scientist and more computer science than a statistician. (I didn’t say it was a good joke.)”

Data Science from Scratch: First Principles with Python by Joel Grus
Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline by Cathy O’Neil and Rachel Schutt
Python for Data Analysis: Data Wrangling with Pandas, NumPy, and IPython by Wes McKinney

Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig
Introduction to Machine Learning by Ethem Alpaydin
Introduction to Machine Learning by Alex Smola (free download)
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Christopher Bishop
Programming Collective Intelligence Toby Segaran
Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning by David Barber
Bayesian Data Analysis by Andrew Gelman and John B. Carlin

Data Analysis
Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models by Andrew Gelman and Jennifer Hill
The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction by Trevor Hastie and Robert Tibshirani
Statistical Inference by George Casella
Advanced Data Analysis from an Elementary Point of View by Cosma Rohilla Shalizi (draft free download)

Statics and Probability
Introductory Statistics Barbara Illowsky,Susan Dean (free download)
OpenIntro Statistics by David M Diez, Christopher D Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel (free download)
Introduction to Probability by Charles M. Grinstead and J. Laurie Snell
Introduction to Probability Models by Sheldon M. Ross
A First Course in Probability by Sheldon Ross

Linear Algebra and Calculus
Active Calculus Matthew Boelkins, David Austin, Steven Schlicker (free download)
Convex Optimization by Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe (free download)
Linear Algebra and Its Applications by Gilbert Strang
Linear Algebra by Jim Hefferon
Linear Algebra by David Cherney, Tom Denton and Andrew Waldron (free download)
Linear Algebra Done Wrong by Sergei Treil (free download)

Presenting the information
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte