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Luscombe NM Greenbaum D Gerstein M

This document discusses the field of bioinformatics, which uses computer analysis to manage and interpret biological data. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that combines genomics, biotechnology, and information technology. It aims to organize biological data, develop tools to analyze the data, and interpret the results in a biologically meaningful way.

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73 views1 page

Luscombe NM Greenbaum D Gerstein M

This document discusses the field of bioinformatics, which uses computer analysis to manage and interpret biological data. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that combines genomics, biotechnology, and information technology. It aims to organize biological data, develop tools to analyze the data, and interpret the results in a biologically meaningful way.

Uploaded by

Dang Cuevas
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INTRODUCTION

As a result of the vast amount of biological data being produced at a


phenomenal rate, technology has become indispensable to research and biological
studies. The use of computers provides easier access, storage for large quantities of
data and the capability to probe the complex dynamics observed in nature. With the
help of a Bioinformatics, a fairly new discipline that derives knowledge from
computer analysis of biological data, it is now easier to manage and interpret the
data that in the past decade was massively generated by genomic research.
Bioinformatics is by nature, a cross-disciplinary field that began in the 1960s
with the efforts of Margaret O. Dayhoff, Walter M. Fitch, Russell F. Doolittle and
others and has matured into a fully developed discipline. This discipline represents
the convergence of genomics, biotechnology and information technology, and
encompasses analysis and interpretation of data, modeling of biological
phenomena, and development of algorithms and statistics. (Thampi S, 2008). It is
highly interdisciplinary, using techniques and concepts from informatics, statistics,
mathematics, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and linguistics. It has many
practical applications in different areas of biology and medicine. Additional areas of
study include the text of scientific papers and "relationship data" from metabolic
pathways, taxonomy trees, and protein-protein interaction networks. Bioinformatics
employs a wide range of computational techniques including sequence and
structural alignment, database design and data mining, macromolecular geometry,
phylogenetic tree construction, prediction of protein structure and function, gene
finding, and expression data clustering. The emphasis is on approaches integrating
a variety of computational methods and heterogeneous data sources. Finally,
bioinformatics is a practical discipline.
In general, the aims of bioinformatics are three-fold. First, at its simplest
bioinformatics organises data in a way that allows researchers to access existing
information and to submit new entries as they are produced, e.g. the Protein Data
Bank for 3D macromolecular structures. The second aim is to develop tools and
resources that aid in the analysis of data. Lastly, the third aim is to use these tools
to analyse the data and interpret the results in a biologically meaningful manner
(Luscombe NM, Greenbaum D, Gerstein M, 2011). As a result, Bioinformatics has not
only provided greater depth to biological investigations, but also provided a means
to be able to examine individual systems in detail and compare them with those of
other related studies in order to discover unique features encompassing these areas
and uncover common principles that apply across many systems.

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