What is bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is defined as an academic field that seeks to create and advance algorithms,

computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems

arising from the management and analysis of biological data. The primary goal of bioinformatics

is to increase understanding of biological processes. What distinguishes bioinformatics from

other approaches, however, is its focus on developing and applying computational techniques to

achieve this goal.

Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly,

protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, modelling of DNA and protein

evolution, analysis of genetic variation in populations, and analysis of gene expression, protein-

protein interaction and protein mass spectrometry data. Another emerging area within

bioinformatics is systems biology, which examines how individual biological components (e.g.

metabolic pathways, genes, proteins, organelles, cells, physiological systems, organisms) interact

in a network to produce observable phenotypes of a whole organism or body system.

Since bioinformatics involves organising and analysing large data sets from high-throughput

biological studies, and developing algorithms and statistical approaches to analyse and

understand these data, it heavily relies on mathematical and statistical models and

methodologies, as well as on computational tools and applications, where the outcomes of such

efforts also require coupling to a particular biological question.

What is bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of computer technology to the management of biological

information. Computers are used to gather, store, analyze and integrate biological and genetic

information which can then be applied to gene-based drug discovery and development. The need

for Bioinformatics capabilities has been precipitated by the explosion of publicly available

genomic information resulting from the Human Genome Project.

The goal of this project – determination of the sequence of the entire human genome

(approximately three billion base pairs) – will be reached by the year 2002. The science of

Bioinformatics, which is the melding of molecular biology with computer science, is essential to

the use of genomic information in understanding human diseases and in the identification of new

molecular targets for drug discovery.

In recognition of this, many universities, government institutions and pharmaceutical firms have

formed bioinformatics groups, consisting of computational biologists and bioinformatics

computer scientists. Such groups will be key to unraveling the mass of information generated by

large scale sequencing efforts underway in laboratories around the world.

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