Bioinformatics and its evolution
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Bioinformatics is an inter disciplinary research area. It is a fusion of computing, biotechnology and biological sciences. Bioinformatics is poised to one of the most prodigious growth areas in the next to decades. Being the interface between the most rapidly advancing fields of biological and computational sciences, it is immense in scope and vast in applications.
Bioinformatics is the study of biological information as it passes from its storage site in the genome to the various gene products in the cell. Bioinformatics involves the creation and computational technologies for problems in molecular biology. As such ,it deals with methods for storing, retrieving and analyzing biological data, such as nuclei acid (DNA/RNA)and protein sequence, structures, functions, path ways and interactions. The science of Bioinformatics, which is the melding of molecular biology with computer science is essential to the use of genomic information in understanding human diseases and in the identification of new molecular targets of drug discovery. New discoveries are being made in the field of genomics, an area of study which looks at the DNA sequence of an organism in order to determine which genes code for beneficial traits and which genes are involved in inherited diseases.
If you are not tall enough, the stature could be altered accordingly. If you are weak and not strong enough, your physique could be improved. If you think this is the script for a science fiction movie, you are mistaken. It is the future reality.
2. EVOLUTION OF BIOINFORMATICS
DNA is the genetic material of organism. It contains all the information needed for the development and existence of an organism. The DNA molecule is formed of two long polynucleotide chains which are spirally coiled on each other forming a double helix. Thus it has the form of spirally twisted ladder. DNA is a molecule made from sugar, phosphate and bases. The bases are guanine (G), cytosine(C)adenine(A) and thiamine(T).Adenine pairs only with Thiamine and Guanine pairs only with Cytosine. The various combinations of these bases make up with DNA. That is; AAGCT, CCAGT, TACGGT etc. An infinite number of combinations of these bases is possible. And then the gene is a sequence of DNA that represents a fundamental unit of heredity. Human genome consists of approximately 30,000 genes, containing approximately 3 billion base pairs.
Currently, scientists are trying to determine the entire DNA sequence of various living organisms. DNA sequence analysis could identify genes, regulatory sequences and other functions. Molecular biology, algorithms, and computing have helped in sequencing larger portions of genomics of several species. Sequence is the determination of the order of nucleotides in a DNA as also the order of amino acids in a protein. Sequence analysis, which is at the core of bioinformatics, enables function identification of genes.
The human found in every cell of a human being consists of 23pairs of chromosomes. These chromosomes constitute the 3 billion letters of chemical code that specify the blue print for a human being. Human Genome Project, one of the best known projects in the world. The world Human Genome Project, a vast endeavor aimed at reading this entire DNA code will completely transform biology, medicine and biotechnology. Using this entire code all 30,000 human genes will be identified; all 5000 inherited diseases will become diagnosable and potentially curable; and drug design will be completely transformed. The Genome Project focuses on two main objective: mapping-pinpointing the genomic location of all genes and markers; and DNA sequencing-reading the chemical "text" of all the genes and their intervening sequences. DNA sequences are entered in to large data bases, where they can be compared with the known genes, including inter-species comparisons. The explosion of publicly available genomic information resulting from the Human Genome Project has precipitated the need for bioinformatics capabilities.
Determination of genome organization and gene regulation will promote the understanding of how humans develop from single cells to adults, why this process some times goes wrong, and the changes that take place as people age. Bioinformatics finds applications in medicine for recommending individually tailored drugs based on an individual's profile. It helps to identify a specific genetic sequence that is responsible for a particular disease, its associated protein, and protein function. For curing the disease a new drugs can be developed.
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