What the heck is bioinformatics? — [Bioinformatics Eps.1]
Today, technology is our best friend. As times change, we adapt to new ways of doing things and new habits. With the pandemic and changes in how people live, people are getting used to doing fewer social things, which will change many things so that people can stay connected remotely and virtually.
Can you imagine how scientists can study and determine what is going on with the pandemic? They can find the viruses, find out how they are related, see how they have changed, their effects, what diseases they cause, and even how to make a vaccine. It is easier now that this technology has come along. But have we ever thought about what kind of technology and science has brought people to this impressive circle of knowledge? Why do we want to know so much?
A mix of changes in both biology and technology. Bioinformatics
In an article by the Earlham Institute, Jose de Vega says that bioinformatics is a branch of science that uses computer experiments to find answers to biological questions from large amounts of data [1].
According to the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, bioinformatics uses computers to understand and manipulate biological and clinical data in the best way possible. It is a field that uses computer science to store, analyze, and make sense of “big data” that comes from life science experiments or clinical data. And experts who focus on data [2].
The era of rapid growth in the biological sciences is marked by the rise of a new science that combines computing and molecular biology, even though bioinformatics is thought to have grown on its own [3].
In the fields of genomic computing, biological data processing, and analysis, material visualization and modeling, DNA and RNA analysis, phylogenetics, and many others, scientists have made many contributions to bioinformatics. The development of bioinformatics also covers microarray data analysis, protein structure classification and prediction, disease classification with machine learning approaches, biological network construction, and genome tools and databases [4].
In short, bioinformatics is a field that involves many different areas of study.
Bioinformatics studies sequences with the development of algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theories to solve formal and practical bio-medical problems [3].
DNA sequences in bioinformatics play a crucial role and have become the center in advancing the field of molecular biology through technological approaches. This not only changes the way genomics works, but it also opens up a lot of new ways to learn more about many things in this world [3].
Molecular biology is a science that will never die, considering that the life of living things is based on biological material, with mutations and even evolution. This field of science is always present to continue to be explored with scientific research. The limits of experiments are no longer a problem because bioinformatics offers a way to do a lot of experiments on a large scale that uses a lot of computing power.
In short, bioinformatics allows humans to obtain, process, analyze and even predict biological data on a large scale with a technological approach.
It would be surprising if, in a short time, scientists managed to analyze the structure of the Covid-19 virus, of course, with the help of extraordinary knowledge and computers owned by humans.
Yep, that’s what bioinformatics is all about.
References:
[1] https://www.earlham.ac.uk/articles/what-is-bioinformatics
[2] https://www.sib.swiss/what-is-bioinformatics
[3] Diniz, Wellison Jarles & Canduri, F.. (2017). REVIEW-ARTICLE Bioinformatics: an overview and its applications. Genetics and Molecular Research. 16. 10.4238/gmr16019645.
[4] Luscombe NM, Greenbaum D, Gerstein M. What is bioinformatics? A proposed definition and overview of the field. Methods Inf Med. 2001;40(4):346–58. PMID: 11552348.
