Bioinformatics “Other techniques raise more questions than they answer. Bioinformatics is what answers the questions those techniques generate.” SheAvery<3

What is Bioinformatics?! Bioinformatics is the combination of computer science with the studies of molecular biology. This is constantly being done to increase our knowledge on biological processes.

But…how? Practitioners try to locate a certain set of data. (Nucleotide and amino acid sequences, protein domains, and protein structures.)  This data is then interpreted and analyzed. Said data is placed into databases and is then used in comparison to previously collected data. (Leads to the development of new algorithms.)

Common Uses Homology and Comparative Modeling Protein or gene homology is shared nucleotide or amino acid sequences or domains shared between different proteins regardless of whether from same or different organism Gene or Protein Identification Searching databases for nucleotide or amino acid sequences that match sequences in unknown samples

Which leads to… Being able to identify certain molecular processes/reactions; Identifying Changes Curing Disease Cancer Predictions of gene expression or protein structure

Ethics Ethical issues mostly revolve around the risks involving the reliability of what we learn from bioinformatics.

Around the world! India Kyoto, Japan Cambrige Analyzed protein structures using geometric and machine learning techniques with specific goals of protein structure prediction and functional classification of the protein structures Kyoto, Japan Doing the same as India Cambrige Cancer Studies

Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics http://www.bioinformatics.org/wiki/Bioinformatics_FAQ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/primer/bioinformatics.html http://www.hpcf.upr.edu/~humberto/presentations/bioethics.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cbbc/courses/bio68/notes/Ethics_RogerYoung.html be.leeward.hawaii.edu/Summer07/KentBioinformatics.ppt http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~ashish/research/index.html http://www.enm.bris.ac.uk/cig/cb/ http://kanehisa.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ http://books.google.com/books?id=NPByF1XHsQMC&pg=PA201&dq=bioinformatics+ethical+issues&cd=1#v=onepage&q=bioinformatics%20ethical%20issues&f=false