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In this article we will discuss about Bioinformatics:- 1. Meaning of Bioinformatics 2. Major Work Areas of Bioinformatics 3. Software and Tools 4. Web-Services.
Meaning of Bioinformatics:
Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the field of molecular biology. Bioinformatics entails the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data.
Over the past few decades rapid developments in genomic and other molecular research technologies combined developments in information technologies have combined to produce a tremendous amount of information related to molecular biology.
It is the name given to these mathematical and computing approaches used to glean understanding of biological processes. Common activities in Bioinformatics include mapping and analysing DNA and protein sequences, aligning different DNA and protein sequences to compare them and creating and viewing 3-D models of protein structures.
The primary goal of bioinformatics is to increase our understanding of biological processes. What sets it apart from other approaches, however, is its focus on developing and applying computationally intensive techniques (e.g., data mining and machine learning algorithms) to achieve this goal.
Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly; protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction; prediction of gene expression and protein-protein interactions, and the modelling of evolution Bioinformatics were applied in the creation and maintenance of a database to store biological information at the beginning of the “genomic revolution”, such as nucleotide and amino acid sequences.
Development of this type of database involved not only design issues but the development of complex interfaces whereby researchers could both access existing data as well as submit new or revised data. In order to study how normal cellular activities are altered in different disease states, the biological data must be combined to form a comprehensive picture of these activities.
Therefore, the field of bioinformatics has evolved such that the most pressing task now involves the analysis and interpretation of various types of data, including nucleotide and amino acid sequences, protein domains, and protein structures. The actual process of analysing and interpreting data is referred to as computational biology.
Important sub-disciplines within bioinformatics and computational biology include:
(a) The development and implementation of tools that enable efficient access to, and use and management of, various types of information.
(b) The development of new algorithms (mathematical formulas) and statistics with which to assess relationships among members of large data sets, such as methods to locate a gene within a sequence, predict protein structure and/or function, and cluster protein sequences into families of related sequences.
Major Work Areas of Bioinformatics:
(a) Sequence analysis
(b) Genome annotation
(c) Computational evolutionary biology
(d) Measuring biodiversity
(e) Analysis of gene expression
(f) Analysis of regulation
(g) Analysis of protein expression
(h) Analysis of mutations in cancer
(i) Prediction of protein structure
(j) Comparative genomics
(k) Modelling biological systems
(l) High-throughput image analysis
(m) Protein-protein docking.
Software and Tools in Bioinformatics:
Software tools for bioinformatics range from simple command-line tools, to more complex graphical programs and standalone web-services available from various bioinformatics companies or public institutions.
The computational biology tool best-known among biologists is probably BLAST, an algorithm for determining the similarity of arbitrary sequences against other sequences, possibly from curated databases of protein or DNA sequences. The NCBI provides a popular web-based implementation that searches their databases. BLAST is one of a number of generally available programs for doing sequence alignment.
Web-Services in Bioinformatics:
SOAP and REST-based interfaces have been developed for a wide variety of bioinformatics applications allowing an application running on one computer in one part of the world to use algorithms, data and computing resources on servers in other parts of the world.
The main advantages lay in the end user not having to deal with software and database maintenance overheads. Basic bioinformatics services are classified by the EBI into three categories: SSS (Sequence Search Services), MSA (Multiple Sequence Alignment) and BSA (Biological Sequence Analysis).
These service-oriented bioinformatics resources demonstrate the applicability of web-based bioinformatics solutions, and range from a collection of standalone tools with a common data format under a single, standalone or web-based interface, to integrative, distributed and extensible bioinformatics workflow management systems.
