Ninfa/Ballou/Parsons is a solid biochemistry lab manual, dedicated to developing research skills in students, allowing them to learn techniques and develop the organizational approaches necessary to conduct laboratory research. Ninfa/Ballou/Parsons focuses on basic biochemistry laboratory techniques with a few molecular biology exercises, a reflection of most courses which concentrate on traditional biochemistry experiments and techniques. The manual also includes an introduction to ethics in the laboratory, uncommon in similar manuals. Most importantly, perhaps, is the authors' three-pronged approach to encouraging students to think like a research scientist: first, the authors introduce the scientific method and the hypothesis as a framework for developing conclusive experiments; second, the manual's experiments are designed to become increasingly complex in order to teach more advanced techniques and analysis; finally, gradually, the students are required to devise their own protocols. In this way, students and instructors are able to break away from a "cookbook" approach and to think and investigate for themselves. Suitable for lower-level and upper-level courses; Ninfa spans these courses and can also be used for some first-year graduate work.

Alexander J. Ninfa is Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan and is internationally recognized for his work on the biochemical mechanisms of signal transduction and transcriptional regulation in bacteria.

David P. Ballou is Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan and is widely known for his work in rapid kinetics and the study of enzyme mechanisms involving redox coenzymes.