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Molecular Cell Biology

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With its acclaimed author team, cutting-edge content, emphasis on medical relevance, and coverage based on landmark experiments, Molecular Cell Biology has justly earned an impeccable reputation as an authoritative and exciting text. The new Sixth Edition features two new coauthors, expanded coverage of immunology and development, and new media tools for students and instructors.

973 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 1992

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1154 people want to read

About the author

Harvey F. Lodish

80 books9 followers

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5 stars
334 (45%)
4 stars
217 (29%)
3 stars
118 (16%)
2 stars
41 (5%)
1 star
18 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
Profile Image for Brian Dean.
23 reviews9 followers
February 10, 2008
Poor character development, confusing storyline and disjointed progression of events (ie. mitosis to paracrine signaling). Literature at its worst.
Profile Image for Rohit.
51 reviews12 followers
February 17, 2012
Language of book is difficult compare to other books available for Molecular biology at undergraduate level. More emphasis is on complex systems and principles. I would recommend to read "Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts" First and then read this book.
Profile Image for Adam.
126 reviews15 followers
December 2, 2009
Occasionally unclear and frustrating in its verbosity.

Still better than the professor at explaining portions of the material, so I can't complain too much.

Science textbooks tend to get very pompous once you reach a certain level, and many of the passages should be rephrased to make the material more approachable and comprehensible.

I've fallen asleep on this a couple of times. By no means an easy read.
253 reviews6 followers
March 3, 2014
This book covers about the same material as Albert's Biology of the Cell. There is a religious war as to which book is better. Having both on my desk, I can tell you that I tend to reach to Lodish more often. But neither books are perfect and I often end up looking things up in wikipedia, Watson's Biology of the Gene, and Lehninger's Biochemistry.
Profile Image for Sofia.
177 reviews29 followers
February 10, 2013
The greatest molecular biology book ever. It has served me since my first year as an undergrad, and eight years later I still consult it. Some people are on Team Alberts (Molecular Biology of the Cell), but I'll be a Lodish girl forever.
Profile Image for Ravi K. Avadhanula.
71 reviews1 follower
April 13, 2020
While Bruce Alberts is gold-standard, Lodish is, what should I say, yes, Platinum-standard. Takes the student into advanced levels of molecular genetic tools. Standard English.
The EXPERIMENTAL FIGURES are added feathers to this crown of a book.
Profile Image for Jess.
11 reviews3 followers
February 2, 2008
I loathe this book. All three times I have had to read it over the last, oh, ten years. Bastard.
Profile Image for Kelsey.
53 reviews
September 17, 2008
Text book. Lots of information. Good for 2(!) masters classes. Will continue to use as reference.
Profile Image for Catherine Xu.
9 reviews1 follower
December 19, 2021
*3.5- Readable but could have done a better job at structuring the content and making it more clear. For example, the book constantly mentions that the EB1 protein results in catastrophe for microtubules but this is only in the case for in vivo and this isn’t made clear, which can cause confusion among a lot of Cell Bio students who are normally taught and tested on the vitro behavior of EB1, which has the exact opposite effect of stabilization.
Profile Image for Laura.
66 reviews19 followers
January 29, 2018
This book uses sentences that contain INFORMATION as titles, as if it is trying to squeeze every drop of information it can into the smallest space possible, while sacrificing readability. Would be 100x better if it used simple titles for organizational sake and saved the information for the PARAGRAPHS.
18 reviews
July 31, 2022
Although so much of the biochemistry is beyond my expertise, I found this book extremely informative. It is very detailed and if you have the patience and enough understanding, you will get a lot out of it.

There is the small caveat that I am not a medical student. So my opinions on this are probably not useful or relevant.
Profile Image for Laura Z.
143 reviews
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December 13, 2025
I've fallen asleep more times reading this textbook than I can count. However, the figures deserve praise and it is somewhat concise. I guess my rating will be conditional to the grade i get on the final.
Profile Image for Azima Ansari.
1 review
July 8, 2020
Want to
read but doesn't open
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
19 reviews5 followers
March 16, 2021
It's about who teaches you. Every subject is bound to be fascinating provided the teacher is such. This book was analogous to a novel, I just couldn't stop reading it. What a pleasure !
1 review
March 4, 2025
It is a very informative book written in a very engaging style with strong, colourful figures and detailed explanations. It contains many of those details which are not found in other cell biology books. It is much much better than "Molecular Biology of the Cell" by Bruce Alberts which is too wordy with figures not so impressive and lacks many details covered by Lodish 👑
16 reviews4 followers
March 26, 2008
I can say it's the best and more complete book that it's about molecular cell biology.
9 reviews8 followers
Read
December 21, 2008
do ya really wanna know what i'm learning from this book?.....i don't think so. suffice it to say...you gotta really want it!
Profile Image for Camila.
1 review
December 19, 2012
Es el libro más pesado y aburrido que leí. Puede que haya sido por la mala traducción al castellano.
Profile Image for Emily.
585 reviews17 followers
December 7, 2015
Lots of good information that is clearly presented. Too many techniques though. Would be better without all the technique talk.
Profile Image for Constantine.
87 reviews11 followers
October 19, 2024
I rated this 2 stars not because of the book, but for the class that I read this book for.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews

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