“Bioinformatics may be broadly defined as the interface between Life Sciences and Computational Sciences.” It is a new science that has been stimulated by recent work on gene sequences such as the Human Genome Project. “Bioinformatics applies the latest database techniques and smart mathematical algorithms to gene and protein sequence information in the search for new medical drug leads.”
It combines the storage and retrieval of complex biological data, with analysis and annotation of biological information. IT tools automate many of the processes, some of which take large amounts of computing power. The newest area is knowledge-based modelling of specific cellular and molecular processes. Bioinformatics is therefore the study of the information content and information flow in biological systems and processes. This came from the Bioinformatics Centre at the National University of Singapore. Therefore, the field of Bioinformatics has evolved so 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 analyzing and interpreting data is referred to as computational biology.
Source: www.bic.nus.edu.sg/aboutus.shtml
Over the past few decades, major advances in the field of molecular biology, coupled with advances in genomic technologies, have led to an explosive growth in the biological information generated by the scientific community. This deluge of genomic information has, in turn, led to an absolute need for computerized databases to store, organize and index the data, and for specialized tools to view and analyze the data.
www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome/home.html provides information regarding the Human Genome Project.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMGifs/Genomes/allorg.html talks about all other genomes and gives examples.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disease/ has a nice discussion about genes and diseases.
http://brc.mcw.edu/ is a site for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Bioinformatics Research Center whose efforts are directed towards creating systems to aid the modern biological researcher in collecting, analyzing, annotating, and presenting data. They have four main teams. They are (1) the Human Systems Team (design, implement and develop local and web-based application to support human study research), (2) Rat Genome Database Team (develop, implement, and maintain a single repository for all rat-related genetic data for the Rat model research community), (3) Experimental Systems Team (design the algorithms and methods of analysis needed for top research priorities in model organisms used for disease research), and (4) Advanced Applications Team (provide state of the art tools, database and analysis in support of all projects in the BRC). This site allows the reader to obtain a short description of each project the various teams are currently working on.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Tools/ takes the browser to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The late Senator Claude Pepper recognized the importance of computerized information processing methods for the conduct of biomedical research and sponsored legislation that established the Center on November 4, 1988, as a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NLM was chosen for its experience creating and maintaining biomedical databases, and because as part of NIH, it could establish a research program in computational molecular biology. The collective research components of NIH make up the largest biomedical research facility in the world. For researchers to benefit from the data stored in a database, two additional requirements must be met: (1) easy access to the information; and a method for extracting only that information needed to answer a specific biological question.
Bioinformatics promises to lead to advances in understanding basic biological processes, and in turn, advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many genetic diseases. Bioinformatics has transformed the discipline of biology from a purely lab-based science to an information science as well. Increasingly, biological studies begin with a scientist conducting vast numbers of database and Web site searches to formulate specific hypotheses or design large-scale experiments. The implications behind this change, for both science and medicine, are staggering.
Many of their databases are linked through a unique search and retrieval system, called Entrez. (pronounced ahn' tray) allows a user to not only access and retrieve specific information from a single database, but to access integrated information from many NCBI databases.
The NCBI
Some of the research being done using Bioinformatics is in the genetic composition of obesity, HIV, bone marrow transplant registry, prostate cancer tissue databank, and uses in the cures for epilepsy, renal disease, and hypertension. As part of the NCBI, projects are coordinated with other research institutes to gain maximum efficiency. For example, in conjunction with the NCBI, the goal of the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Genome Anatomy Project is to determine the gene expression profiles of normal, precancer, and cancer cells, leading eventually to improved detection, diagnosis, and treatment for the patient. The CGAP web site provides researchers with access to all CGAP data and biological resources.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/GenbankOverview.html is a collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disease/ALD.html will lead you to a short discussion of the disease that was the subject of the movie “Lorenzo’s Oil.”
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/model/index.html provides a brief discussion of the various models, both mammals and nonmammals, that assist researchers in understanding various biological processes.
The European Bioinformatics Institute provides comprehensive search, information and analysis services over the WWW as well as interactive submission and deposition tools for scientists to publish and distribute their data. EBI bioinformatics is primarily focused on enabling sciences and technologies that allow biological information to be stored, integrated, searched, retrieved and analysed. It includes managing databases containing biological data of DNA, protein sequences, and macromolecular structures. Its mission is to provide this information to the public and to allow access to this information to the world scientific community in order to promote scientific progress.
www.ebi.ac.uk/services/index.html
Some of the research being done using Bioinformatics is in the genetic composition of obesity, HIV, bone marrow transplant registry, prostate cancer tissue databank, and uses in the cures for epilepsy, renal disease, and hypertension.
http://bioinformatics.oupjournals.org/ is a site for the Bioinformatics journal. It contains past articles and information about careers in this field.
http://bioinformatics-canada.org/ is a site for the largest supercomputer in Canada provided by Silicon Graphics, Inc.
www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/stem/main.htm is a good site to start researching and understanding what stem cell research is all about. It has a very good section regarding the ethical and moral issues relating to this new field. From there, you can access a very good report discussing all the issues of stem cell research. It is believed that human stem cell research holds enormous potential for our understanding of fundamental human biology. But it is wracked with many social, moral, and ethical problems. The report is slanted in favor of this research.
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html This site allows you to read or listen to the President’s remarks regarding stem cell research.
Federal funding is needed in order to gain maximum advantage from this line of inquiry. All views must be taken into consideration before a decision should be made. The major problem in this research is that most of the stem cells come from aborted fetuses.
www.stemcellresearch.org/ is an address for a national coalition of researchers, health care professionals, bioethicists, legal professionals, and others dedicated to the promotion of scientific research and health care which does no harm to human life