Monday 10 October 2011

What is bioinformatics? An introduction and overview

 A flood of data means that many of the challenges in biology are now challenges
in computing. Bioinformatics, the application of computational techniques to analyze the
information associated with bio molecules on a large-scale, has now firmly established
itself as a discipline in molecular biology, and encompasses a wide range of subject areas
from structural biology, genomics to gene expression studies.
In this review we provide an introduction and overview of the current state of the field.
We discuss the main principles that underpin bioinformatics analyses, look at the types
of biological information and databases that are commonly used, and finally examine
some of the studies that are being conducted, particularly with reference to transcription
regulatory systems.

Bioinformatics - a definition
(Molecular) bio – informatics: bioinformatics is conceptualizing biology in
terms of molecules (in the sense of physical chemistry) and applying
"informatics techniques" (derived from disciplines such as applied maths,
computer science and statistics) to understand and organize the information
associated with these molecules, on a large scale. In short, bioinformatics
is a management information system for molecular biology and has many
practical applications.

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