Introduction to Bioinformatics - part 1

Bioinformatics is a newly emerging interdisciplinary research area which may be defined as the interface between Biological Sciences and Computational Sciences. When there is an explosive growth in biological information, a efficiency method was needed.to analyse and interprit these information using computer technologies. That is the emerging of a new field called Bioinformatics. Major advances in molecular biology and advances in genomic technologies have led to this explosive growth. Computers are required in Bioinformatics for their

1. Processing speed

2. Data storage Capacity

This allows repetitive tasks to be carried out quickly and systematically. How ever many problems addressed by Bioinformatics require expert human input and the integrity and quality of source data are also critical.

Bioinformatics incorporate the development of databases to store and search data and statistical tools and algorithms to analyze  and determine relationships between biological data sets, such as macromolecular sequences, structures, expression profiles and biochemical pathways.

What type of data being produced in the development of biological sciences

• Sequence data

1. DNA sequences
2. Protein sequence

• Transcription or RNA profiles
• Protein profiles
• Protein 3d structures
• Interactions
• Metabolic pathways

Importance and Applications of Bioinformatics

• Identification of genes from DNA sequences.
• Predicting RNA secondary structures.
• Predicting Amino Acid sequences and structures.
• Detecting functional, structural and phylogenetic relationships
• Predicting, modeling 3D structure of Proteins
• Drug designing
• Predicting interactions of drugs, Toxicology
• Medical diagnosis.

To be continued......