Emerging field of Science: Bioinformatics
We are living in the golden era of the computational world. Nowadays our life is only possible with computers and computer-related instruments. Even though we are using different types of software and computational tools for different discoveries, Bioinformatics is a very modern branch of Biological Science in which biological information can be converted into computational data which is very helpful in studies and research.
Bioinformatics is a scientific approach that uses computer technology to prepare databases for human genomes and genetic manipulations. It seeks to collect and analyze biological information of a person such as DNA and gene sequence as well as amino acid and protein sequence which are now a day’s important factors for discovering personalized disease diagnostics and drug development. It has a major role to play practical insights in human health management. This is a very excellent achievement for future human research. With the help of genome sequencing, we are capable of reading the different dangerous viruses’ genomic sequences for the prediction of viruses’ life cycles and their harmful effects on humans and other organisms. With the help of Bioinformatics tools, we are capable of sequencing the whole genomic sequence.
Recently it was discovered the completion of whole genome sequencing of most organisms. The biggest achievement was a landmark for the scientific world for mapping the entire Human Genome Sequence. Currently, the Human Genome Project is a novel research that is ongoing worldwide.
Bioinformatics requires the management of data particularly for modern biology and medical science. The bioinformatics tool includes computer software programs such as Pub Med, PubChem, Comprotein, BLAST, FASTA, EMBOSS, PROSPECT, COPIA, Rasmol, etc.
The main Significance and applications of Bioinformatics are in gene therapy in molecular biology as a prediction of protein structure, in the field of medicine and drug discovery, evolutionary studies, strain improvement of crops, crop production, pest control, etc.
Overall Bioinformatics emerged as a combination of Biology with Information technology and thus diverse fields of science like Chemistry, Mathematics, Statistics, and Biology merged into one platform. Bioinformatics and related sectors now provide a wide and unique scope of pharmaceutical industries, and computer Technology for developing new software and tools and creating future aspects in scientific laboratories for human health diagnosis.
Author:
Ms. Amrita Kariyari
Assistant Professor (Biotechnology)
Department of Science, VISMT