Bioinformatics for Vaccinology (eBook)

"... this book was written from start to finish by one
extremely dedicated and erudite individual. The author has done an
excellent job of covering the many topics that fall under the
umbrella of computational biology for vaccine design, demonstrating
an admirable command of subject matter in fields as disparate as
object-oriented databases and regulation of T cell response. Simply
put, it has just the right breadth and depth, and it reads well. In
fact, readability is one of its virtues--making the book
enticing and useful, all at once..." Human Vaccines,
2010

"... This book has several strong points. Although there are
many textbooks that deal with vaccinology, few attempts have been
made to bring together descriptions of vaccines in history, basic
bioinformatics, various computational solutions and challenges in
vaccinology, detailed experimental methodologies, and cutting-edge
technologies... This book may well serve as a first line of
reference for all biologists and computer scientists..."
-Virology Journal, 2009

Vaccines have probably saved more lives and reduced suffering in a
greater number of people than any other medical intervention in
human history, succeeding in eradicating smallpox and significantly
reducing the mortality and incidence of other diseases. However,
with the emergence of diseases such as SARS and the threat of
biological warfare, vaccination has once again become a topic of
major interest in public health.

Vaccinology now has at its disposal an array of post-genomic
approaches of great power. None has a more persuasive potential
impact than the application of computational informatics to vaccine
discovery; the recent expansion in genome data and the parallel
increase in cheap computing power have placed the bioinformatics
exploration of pathogen genomes centre stage for vaccine
researchers.

This is the first book to address the area of bioinformatics as
applied to rational vaccine design, discussing the ways in which
bioinformatics can contribute to improved vaccine development
by

* introducing the subject of harnessing the mathematical and
computing power inherent in bioinformatics to the study of
vaccinology

* putting it into a historical and societal context,
and

* exploring the scope of its methods and applications.

Bioinformatics for Vaccinology is a one-stop
introduction to computational vaccinology. It will be of particular
interest to bioinformaticians with an interest in immunology, as
well as to immunologists, and other biologists who need to
understand how advances in theoretical and computational
immunobiology can transform their working practices.