BIO-INFORMATICS – Cybernetics in Biology
Powerful data management tools are now required more than ever to store, share, study and compare the burgeoning library of biological information. Bioinformatics combines the tools of mathematics, computer science and biology and serves as a platform for all aspects of the acquisition, processing, storage, distribution, analysis, interpretation and display of biological information.
Once primarily a word processor and graphics aid, the computer has evolved into an all-purpose scientific tool. It is essential for collecting and analyzing data, for reading and searching the scientific literature and for sharing and discussing the data with colleagues around the globe. Studying the processes of various biomolecular interactions is difficult and time consuming. Computation simplifies this through ingenious modalities like the chip-based ‘Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology’ which claims to reveal significant information about molecular dynamics.
People working in the field of bioinformatics in most cases have a training in either biology or computer sciences. As a consequence of the large amount of data produced in the field of molecular biology, most of the current bioinformatics projects deal with structural and functional aspects of genes and proteins. The major investigatory topics include sequence alignment, biological database design, geometric analysis of protein structure and macromolecular simulation.
First, the data produced by thousands of research teams all over the world is collected and organized in databases specialized for particular subjects. The basic idea is that these databases should enable the scientific user to get a quick idea about the current knowledge that has been gathered about a particular subject. In the next step, computational tools are needed to analyze the collected data in the most efficient manner.
Thus, we are trying to bring simplicity to the complexity that is being continuously discovered. Areas particularly beneficial to this field are pharmaceutical research wherein the display of the entire protein pattern facilitates better drug designing, analyses of sequences of DNA and proteins, listing of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) on all chromosomes, bacterial/viral classification, forensic investigations and analysis of complex inter-relationships in gene expression data. Moreover, features like data mining and navigation guidance provide ease of information access from among a variety of heterogenous databases.
However, many scientists complain that it is getting increasingly difficult to find useful data on the web that is becoming more like an ‘information labyrinth’ due to more and more information scattered over wide ranging resources. Software experts are on the lookout for computational tools that integrate the scattered information in new types of web resources.
With the help of search engines, we can find almost any word hidden somewhere in this data labyrinth. Moreover, technologies like ‘supercomputing’ and ‘quantum computers’ are also being contemplated as the ever-smaller computer chips approach a physical limit.
It is certain that bioinformatics will lead us from research laboratories to offices where we can actually explore and understand science. Scientific work is no longer a task of a handful of us but relies on the expertise of specialists from various fields to exploit the actual worth of research.
Powerful data management tools are now required more than ever to store, share, study and compare the burgeoning library of biological information. Bioinformatics combines the tools of mathematics, computer science and biology and serves as a platform for all aspects of the acquisition, processing, storage, distribution, analysis, interpretation and display of biological information.
Once primarily a word processor and graphics aid, the computer has evolved into an all-purpose scientific tool. It is essential for collecting and analyzing data, for reading and searching the scientific literature and for sharing and discussing the data with colleagues around the globe. Studying the processes of various biomolecular interactions is difficult and time consuming. Computation simplifies this through ingenious modalities like the chip-based ‘Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology’ which claims to reveal significant information about molecular dynamics.
People working in the field of bioinformatics in most cases have a training in either biology or computer sciences. As a consequence of the large amount of data produced in the field of molecular biology, most of the current bioinformatics projects deal with structural and functional aspects of genes and proteins. The major investigatory topics include sequence alignment, biological database design, geometric analysis of protein structure and macromolecular simulation.
First, the data produced by thousands of research teams all over the world is collected and organized in databases specialized for particular subjects. The basic idea is that these databases should enable the scientific user to get a quick idea about the current knowledge that has been gathered about a particular subject. In the next step, computational tools are needed to analyze the collected data in the most efficient manner.
Thus, we are trying to bring simplicity to the complexity that is being continuously discovered. Areas particularly beneficial to this field are pharmaceutical research wherein the display of the entire protein pattern facilitates better drug designing, analyses of sequences of DNA and proteins, listing of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) on all chromosomes, bacterial/viral classification, forensic investigations and analysis of complex inter-relationships in gene expression data. Moreover, features like data mining and navigation guidance provide ease of information access from among a variety of heterogenous databases.
However, many scientists complain that it is getting increasingly difficult to find useful data on the web that is becoming more like an ‘information labyrinth’ due to more and more information scattered over wide ranging resources. Software experts are on the lookout for computational tools that integrate the scattered information in new types of web resources.
With the help of search engines, we can find almost any word hidden somewhere in this data labyrinth. Moreover, technologies like ‘supercomputing’ and ‘quantum computers’ are also being contemplated as the ever-smaller computer chips approach a physical limit.
It is certain that bioinformatics will lead us from research laboratories to offices where we can actually explore and understand science. Scientific work is no longer a task of a handful of us but relies on the expertise of specialists from various fields to exploit the actual worth of research.
(Originally published on Oct 21, 2002)
- Nivedita M Shori
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