The daunting challenge that Molecular Biology of the Cell, Sixth Edition, aims to conquer is to distill the enormous breadth of cell biology into a form that is digestible by students. The result is a 24-chapter tome whose subject matter begins with the universal features of cells and ends with topics that include development, cell differentiation, and collective cell behaviors in the immune response. Each chapter follows a familiar structure with topics grouped by systems. Numerous color figures accompany each sub-section. Each chapter concludes with a brief summary section, problems, and an extensive list of references that include primary research papers. One feature of the sixth edition is a concluding section entitled “What We Don’t Know,” which consists of a series of open-ended questions designed to present “big picture” challenges in future research. Materials from chapters previously contained in a CD-ROM have been incorporated into the text. There is also a Problems Book to supplement the first 20 chapters. The Problems Book contains more than 1,800 problems and their solutions (along with solutions to problems in the sixth edition text), color illustrations, and MCAT-style questions targeting students interested in medicine.
The textbook and problem sets cover many basic topics in cell biology that are related to one or more aspects of cancer biology. By the time the reader reaches Chapter 20, which focuses specifically on cancer, the mechanisms and symptoms of cancer are relatively easy to understand. Chapter 20 covers topics such as the cellular phenotypes of cancer, genes linked to cancer, and cancer treatment. While the primary literature citations at the end of the chapter will provide good starting points for the curious student, a more in-depth presentation of cancer biology is likely available in textbooks such as The Biology of Cancer by Weinberg or Molecular Biology of Cancer: Mechanisms, Targets, and Therapeutics by Pecorino.
Undergraduate students are clearly the primary audience for Molecular Biology of the Cell. As the reader is presumed to have background knowledge from most introductory biology and chemistry courses, it functions ideally as a textbook for mid-level university cell biology courses. The book also can be an excellent independent resource outside of the classroom setting, making it useful for bioscientists at different stages of their careers. The massive Problems Book may be extremely valuable to teachers because it comprises an impressive number of problems of different types including definition, true/false, calculations, and thought problems, which can be adopted by teachers with different styles or goals.
The book’s pacing is fast, and it covers many subjects. For some instructors, this textbook may be a trap, insofar as there is a temptation to cover the entire contents of it in a one-semester class. The structure of the main text, which includes large blocks of system descriptions without any calculation, question, or sample problem could promote a memorization approach by students. Supplementing lectures and readings with questions from the Problems Book may alleviate this potential pitfall as well.
There are few authors who condense fields and systems as effectively as Alberts and colleagues, and simplifying research into accessible kernels of knowledge without excluding pertinent or interesting details is extremely difficult. Yet, the Molecular Biology of the Cell series of textbooks succeeds on many levels, and the newest edition follows this tradition.
Ultimately, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Sixth Edition, and the accompanying Problems Book are excellent resources, improving upon earlier editions with updated content that reflects recent research advances. It is no surprise that it is one of the most widely used cell biology textbooks in the country.