Genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology: Recommended

Genetics is the study of biological inheritance. Bioinformatics is the use of computers to study biological systems.

Overview for genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology

NCBI Bookshelf
The NCBI Bookshelf hosts full-text books (mostly as PDFs) that can be searched or browsed. Titles are also linked from other NCBI databases such as PubMed.
Through links to other resources at NCBI, such as PubMed, Gene, and OMIM, Bookshelf enables readers to discover relevant biomedical information (see Figure 1). A number of full-text books, reports and databases hosted in Bookshelf can be accessed through links in their corresponding entry in PubMed, a database of citations and abstracts for journal articles, books and documents (see the NLM Technical Bulletin for more information). PubMed and Bookshelf are also interlinked by 1) links in PubMed to publications in Bookshelf that have cited a PubMed citation in their bibliography, and 2) links to PubMed citations from articles cited in publications on Bookshelf.
Morgan and Claypool
Synthesis is a collection of ebooks in engineering and the sciences. The basic component is a 50-100 page ebook called a Lecture that synthesizes important research or development topics, authored by a prominent contributor to the field that provide more synthesis, analysis, and depth than typical journal articles. Each ebook is a single PDF. Colloquium Life Sciences Lectures are organized by subject area, or Series. Each Series is edited by a prestigious Series Editor who oversees topic selection, invitation of expert authors, and scientific review to ensure quality. Links lead to series descriptions and a list of all published and forthcoming Lectures in that series.
The library and its lectures are organized by series. Each series is managed by a prominent consulting editor. The series editor guides lecture topic and author selection as well as peer review. New series and lectures will be added continuously and existing lectures will be revised as needed. This will make the collection dynamic in a way that has not been achieved with traditional reference or educational products.

The Synthesis platform provides the user with access to content in PDF with live links to references and sophisticated search and personalization functions.

The Lecture format:

Enables user to more efficiently find information specific to their interest.
Allows for a high level of authoritativeness, as authors focus on their area of active research.
Enables the library to be extremely current since Lectures in fast moving fields will be frequently updated. Also, Lectures are published as soon as they are completed rather than when the last in a batch is finished (as with print reference works).
Offers the potential to be exhaustively complete since the format can accommodate contributions on even the most specialized topics.

Recommended online resources

NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information

NCBI provides a wealth of tools, resources, and learning materials to promote "...finding new approaches to deal with the volume and complexity of data and to provide researchers with better access to analysis and computing tools to advance understanding of our genetic legacy and its role in health and disease."

Key Resources in addition to PubMed include:

Gene - data, information, and literature for known and predicted genes

Protein - sequences of protein, mRNA

Structure - 3D structures database of macromolecules, with multiple tools

Nucleotide - a collection of nucleotide sequences from several sources within and outside of NCBI databases

PubMed from NLM
Indexes citations, abstracts and full text from journal articles, case studies, conference papers, clinical trial reports, news reports, and reviews in the fields of medicine,nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences. Full text available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to types of clinical queries, age, gender and species of subject, and review articles that summaries research on a topic. 1946-present.
PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant Web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.

PubMed is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A mobile version is available.
CAB Abstracts from CABI
CAB Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts from journals, books, reports, handbooks, conference proceedings, field notes, and theses in agriculture, life sciences, natural resources, veterinary sciences, applied economics, nutrition, tourism, and the environment. Includes the CAB Abstracts Archive. Some full text available as PDFs. 1910s-present.

Biological Sciences Liaison Librarian

Kat Brown

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Newman Library, Room 3005
katbrown@vt.edu

(540) 231-5140

Subjects: Science

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Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.

Last Updated: Jun 13, 2025 6:35 PM
URL: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/subject-guides/gbcb
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Subjects: Agriculture and Life Sciences, Medical School

Tags: agriculture, biological sciences, health, medicine, natural resources