Application of Bioinformatics

From Genetics and Toxicology to Mycology and Radiobiology, there are scores of branches of Biology to specialize in. And out of the many, Bioinformatics is one of the intriguing fields which enables you to identify, evaluate, store, and retrieve biological information. Being an interdisciplinary field of study, it incorporates various facets of Computer Science, Statistics, and Biology to develop software applications for understanding the biological data like DNA sequencing, protein analysis, evolutionary genetics, etc. Not only restricted to Medicine, but the scope of Bioinformatics is spread across Microbial Genome as well as in the field of Agriculture. So, in this blog, we will explore more such exciting applications of Bioinformatics!

Bioinformatics: Overview

An new area of biological study called bioinformatics resulted from the fusion of biology and information technology. It is an interdisciplinary branch of research that combines computer science, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and statistics into one discipline. This industry focuses mostly on the analysis of biological data and the creation of new software with biological instruments.

Bioinformatics is defined as the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, recovery, storage, and visualisation of all biological information using computation technology by the NCBI—National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the NLM—National Library of Medicine and NIH—National Institutes of Health.

The two Dutch biologists Ben Hesper and Paulien Hogeweg originally used the word “bioinformatics” in 1960. They conducted research and made findings that led to the definition of bioinformatics as the study of information processes in biotic systems.

Applications of Bioinformatics

Being a vast field of study, Bioinformatics finds applications in various sectors. Here is a list of application of bioinformatics in various fields including:  

• Biotechnology
• Alternative Energy Sources
• Drug Discovery
• Preventive Medicine 
• Biofuels
• Plant Modelling
• Gene Therapy
• Waste Clean-up
• Climate Change
• Stem Cell Therapy
• Microbial Genome 
• Crop Improvement 
• Nutrition Quality 
• Bio-weapon Development
• Forensic Science
• Veterinary Sciences
• Antibiotic Resistance
• Evolutionary Studies
• Insect Resistance 

Application of Bioinformatics in Medicine

Bioinformatics has various applications in medicine ranging from research in genes, drugs to prevention. Let’s take a look at the applications of bioinformatics in medicine:

• Pharmaceuticals: Bioinformatics researchers have played a quintessential role in pharmaceutical research especially for infectious diseases. Moreover, bioinformatics has also innovated personalised medicine research thus bringing new discoveries in terms of drugs that can be personalized to someone’s genetic pattern.
• Prevention: Just like pharmaceuticals, bioinformatics can be combined with epidemiology to create preventive medicine by understanding causes of health issues, community healthcare infrastructure, disease patterns, etc.
• Therapy: Bioinformatics can also be useful for gene therapy especially for individual genes that have been adversely affected. This application of bioinformatics has been researched by genetics scientists who have found that someone’s genetic profile can be better with the help of bioinformatics.

Uses of Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is a blend of Computer Science, Statistics, and Biology and is used in various fields from veterinary science to crop improvement. Let us explore some of the uses of bioinformatics in-depth in different fields:

Drug Discovery

Drug discovery is one of the main applications of Bioinformatics. Computational biology, an essential element of bioinformatics help scientists to analyse the disease mechanism process and validate new and cost-effective drugs. If we consider the COVID 19 outbreak, bioinformatics can be effectively used to produce an effective drug at a low cost.

Veterinary Sciences

The course of research in Veterinary Science has achieved an advanced level with the help of Bioinformatics. In this field, the application of Bioinformatics ranges specifically focuses on sequencing projects of animals including cows, pigs, and sheep. This has led to the development in overall production as well as the health of livestock. Moreover, Bioinformatics has helped scientists to discover new tools for the identification of vaccine targets. 

Crop Improvement 

Another important application of bioinformatics is in crop improvement. It makes effective usage of proteomic, metabolomic, genetic, and agricultural crop production to develop strong, more drought-resistant, and insect-resistant crops. Thereby enhancing the quality of livestock and making them disease resistant.

Gene Therapy 

A popular branch of Biology, Gene Therapy is a process through which genetic materials are incorporated into unhealthy cells in order to treat, cure as well as prevent diseases. Analyzing protein targets, identifying cancer types, evaluating data, assessing MicroRNA, etc are some of the applications of Bioinformatics in Gene Therapy.

Biotechnology 

For those who want to establish a career in Biotechnology must know that there are a wide range of applications of Bioinformatics in this field. Apart from understanding the genes and genomes, the bioinformatics tools and programs are used to compare the gene pair alignment in order to identify the functions of genes and genomes. Furthermore, it is also used in molecular modelling, docking, annotation and dynamic, etc. 

Waste Clean up

Another important application of bioinformatics is in waste clean up. Here, the primary objective is to identify and assess the DNA sequencing of bacteria and microbes in order to use them for sewage cleaning, removing radioactive waste, clearing oil spills, etc. Did you know that as per the Guinness Book of world records, Bacterium Deinococcus Radiodurans is considered as the world’s toughest bacterium?

Microbial Genome

Microbial Genomes comprises of all the genetic material including chromosomal and extra-chromosomal components of bacteria and eukaryotes. And when it comes to the application of Bioinformatics, this is an important area. Apart from evaluating genome assembly, Bioinformatics tools also help in conducting DNA sequencing for application in areas including health and energy. 

Evolutionary Studies

One of the great American scientists, Theodosius Dobzhansky rightly said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” In order to understand biological problems and improve the quality of life, evolutionary studies play a decisive role. Through bioinformatics, one can compare the genomic data of different species and identify their families, functions, and characteristics   

Bioinformatics Tools

Bioinformatic tools have helped in drug discoveries, veterinary sciences, crop improvement, forensics are many more fields. Different bioinformatics tools have their own applications. Bioinformatics applications include sequence analysis, molecular modeling, molecular dynamics, etc. Here is the list of names of bioinformatics tools for different applications:

• geWorkbench
• BLAST
• BioPerl
• InterMine
• Biojava Bioinformatics Tool for Linux
• IGV Genomic Sequencing Tool
• GROMACS
• Taverna Workbench
• Clustal Omega

Application of Bioinformatics PPT

Application of Bioinformatics Books

Want to know more about the application of bioinformatics? Here are some books that you can buy online and a source to get all the necessary information and gain expertise in the field. Check out the best books for the application of bioinformatics:

Data Mining for Bioinformatics Applicationsby He Zengyou	Buy Here
BIOINFORMATICS: METHODS AND APPLICATIONSby S. C. RASTOGI, NAMITA MENDIRATTA	Buy Here
Bioinformatics: Principles and Applications by Zhumur Ghosh and Bibekanand Mallick	Buy Here
Bioinformatics: Tools and Applications by David Edwards, Jason Stajich, et al.	Buy Here
Introduction to Bioinformatics: Principles and Applications by Dr. Manoj Kumar	Buy Here

FAQs

Hence, the application of Bioinformatics is multi-fold and can be found in various domains! Are you looking forward to pursuing higher education in this field from universities abroad? Let the experts at Leverage Edu assist you in starting your academic journey. Book your free 30 minutes e-counselling session with the team and discover new educational possibilities.