"Today we'll be delving into bioinformatics," said my biology professor as my class walked into lab. Though it sounds kind of intimidating, bioinformatics is just the application of computer technology to the management of biological information.
Bioinformatics is often used in collecting, organizing, and analyzing large amounts of complex biological information. In bioinformatics, computers are used to gather, store, and integrate biological and genetic information which can then be applied to gene-based drug discovery and development. Bioinformatics uses a large range of techniques from computer science including sequence and structural alignment, database design and data mining, and macromolecular geometry.
The techniques of bioinformatics are useful in many different fields including basic research, biomedicine, agriculture, and microbiology. Within these fields, bioinformatics has helped the world by making it easier to see the genetic components of many diseases, discovering drugs, personalizing medicine, making stronger crops thereby increasing the quality of livestock, developing waste cleanup regimes, and counteracting climate change. Though the fields of biology and computer science have both made amazing contributions to the world, the field of bioinformatics has the potential to make a huge impact on how we live our lives.
References:
"Bioinformatics." Partner in Science & Technology. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Bioinformatics: The Science of the Future." Morsani College of Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
"Stanford Center for Professional Development." BIOMEDIN217 Translational Bioinformatics. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
"Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
"What Is Bioinformatics | BioPlanet." BioPlanet RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
Really cool article! It got me thinking about how much computer science has changed the face of our traditional sciences, like biology. A common use of bioinformatics is simply to identify candidate genes and nucleotides, components that are integral to the understanding of genetics today. It makes me wonder where the study of genetics would be without the use of these amazing tools.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article, I did one of my last blogs on this topic. You are right, it is and probably will be very important in the near future. It is so important that we take our knowledge of tech and target the part that will allow humans to live longer and better lives. We focus too much on tech thats not really relevant to our health. Through bioinformatics we can most likely create remedies to help people that are very sick and prolong their life by many years. That is what tech is about!
ReplyDeleteI imagine computer science must be very important to modern scientific fields. There is just so much data, such as in a DNA sequence, or a collection of molecules, that would require a faster processing method than humanly possible. Cool article!
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