Breakthroughs in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is a new field of science that takes an interdisciplinary approach to solving health problems. The field of bioinformatics has roots in the Human Genome Project, a massive undertaking that resulted in a wealth of data difficult for investigators to piece through. In order to extract conclusions from a large amount of biological data, scientists of bioinformatics use techniques from the following fields:

  • Informatics
  • Statistics
  • Computer Science
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Chemistry/Biochemistry

    • Using these various investigative avenues, researchers extract algorithms to make sense of the biological data. And from these algorithms, scientists can solve medical problems from the molecular level. Bioinformatics can examine genome sequences to determine how certain genes are manifested and learn more about evolution. The overarching goal of bioinformatics is to examine the fundamental building blocks of humans—genes, DNA and proteins—to find answers to health issues.

    Bioinformatics enlists computer science and applied mathematics to approximate the structure and purpose of the proteins that determine the biological fingerprint of every living being. With the study of genes, scientists can determine what can make a person predisposed to chronic illnesses like cancer. The conclusions reached through complex and often abstract methods used in bioinformatics can be used either as the impetus for or as a complement to traditional experimentation, helping almost every field of research.

    Recently, two software programs have emerged to assist health professionals with the use of bioinformatics. The first is a tool that provides guidance for the use of the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), a reference source for DNA and protein similarities. Scientists can compare their data to the BLAST system. This program includes a general overview of algorithms as well as an easy-to-understand guide to using BLAST’s various applications.

    Another new tool is a computational pipeline that has been altered to identify DNA variants in sequence data. The tool aligns the data being studied with a genome (indexed from BLAST) and examines any discrepancies, which scientists can then make conclusions from.

    Both of these new tools are making bioinformatics more useful, which has potentially groundbreaking implications in many realms of the health field, including disease prevention and treatment, diagnosis, drug development and insurance.

    August 9, 2007 | Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment