1.Bioinformatics:
The use of computers in solving information problems in the life sciences,
mainly, it involves the creation of extensive electronic databases on
genomes, protein sequences, etc. Secondarily, it involves techniques
such as the three-dimensional modeling of biomolecules and biologic
systems.
Cancer Web
2.What
is Bioinformatics? Bioinformatics is an integration of mathematical,
statistical and computer methods to analyze biological, biochemical
and biophysical data.
(Georgia Tech)
3.Bioinformatics:
The science of developing computer databases and algorithms for the
purpose of speeding up and enhancing biological research. Bioinformatics
is being used most noticeably in the Human Genome Project, the effort
to identify the 80,000 genes in human DNA . New academic programs are
training students in Bioinformatics by providing them with backgrounds
in molecular biology and in computer science, including database design
and analytical approaches.
(whatis.com)
4.What
is Bioinformatics? The definition of bioinformatics is not
univerally agreed upon. Generally speaking, we define it as the creation
and development of advanced information and computational technologies
for problems in biology, most commonly molecular biology (but increasingly
in other areas of biology). As such, it deals with methods for storing,
retrieving and analyzing biological data, such as nucleic acid (DNA/RNA)
and protein sequences, structures, functions, pathways and genetic interactions.
Some people construe bioinformatics more narrowly, and include only
those issues dealing with the management of genome project sequencing
data. Others construe bioinformatics more broadly and include all areas
of computational biology, including population modeling and numerical
simulations.
(Stanford University)
5.Bioinformatics can be defined as the storage, manipulation
and analysis of biological information via computer science. Bioinformatics
is an essential infrastructure underpinning biological research.
(Roslin Institute)
6.Definition:
What is Bioinformatics? Bioinformatics is the study of the inherent
structure of biological information and biological systems. It brings
together the avalanche of systematic biological data (e.g. genomes)
with the analytic theory and practical tools of computer science and
mathematics.
The complex and richly structured data from genomics can be viewed as
the greatest encoding problem of all time (e.g. genome ® organism).
From this perspective, the sequencing of the human and other genomes
can be viewed as one of the all-time great opportunities for theorists
interested in information, its structure and analysis. This formulation
of the "bioinformatics problem" opens the way for biologists
to collaborate with mathematicians and computer scientists, because
it aims to translate "biology problems" into new challenges
that are interesting to theoreticians--problems of information content,
structure and encoding, which inherently interest theorists. By contrast,
the common view (and practice) of bioinformatics, as simply an application
of existing mathematical or CS tools to biological problems, has little
fundamental interest as a research program for mathematicians and computer
scientists.
As
we have defined it, bioinformatics is the analysis and interpretation
of genomics data; i.e. genomics generates data, and bioinformatics provides
analytical tools enabling interpretation of those data. Thus, the underlying
dynamic (repeated over and over in specific examples--mapping, sequences,
expression data, etc.) is the drive from data to understanding, abstracting
from specific, concrete biological data analysis problems to the underlying
theoretical problems of elucidating, representing, and analyzing the
inherent structure within the biological information. This translates
biological questions ("I want to find the orthologs of these genes.")
into the language of information content, structure and encoding, to
bring in the mathematics and computer science needed to solve these
problems.
Thus,
in place of a grab-bag program (which one might represent by a variety
of topics randomly distributed over a field, with sparse inter-connections),
our vision is of a star topology (illustrated below), in which the definition
of bioinformatics acts as the center connecting the data (microcosm)
to the underlying theoretical problems of elucidating the structure
of that information.
(UCLA)
7.Definition: Bioinformatics derives knowledge from
computer analysis of biological data. These can consist of the information
stored in the genetic code, but also experimental results from various
sources, patient statistics, and scientific literature. Research in
bioinformatics includes method development for storage, retrieval, and
analysis of the data. Bioinformatics is a rapidly developing branch
of biology and is highly interdisciplinary, using techniques and concepts
from informatics, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, biochemistry,
physics, and linguistics. It has many practical applications in different
areas of biology and medicine.
(Pasteur Institute)
8.What
is bioinformatics? Bioinformatics is the application of computer
technology to the management of biological information. Computers are
used to gather, store, analyze and integrate biological and genetic
information which can then be applied to gene-based drug discovery and
development. The need for Bioinformatics capabilities has been precipitated
by the explosion of publicly available genomic information resulting
from the Human Genome Project. The goal of this project - determination
of the sequence of the entire human genome (approximately three billion
base pairs) - will be reached by the year 2002. 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 for drug discovery.
In recognition of this, many universities, government institutions and
pharmaceutical firms have formed bioinformatics groups, consisting of
computational biologists and bioinformatics computer scientists. Such
groups will be key to unraveling the mass of information generated by
large scale sequencing efforts underway in laboratories around the world.
(BioPlanet)
9.Bioinformatics
is a recently established field of science drawing data from the traditional
field of biology, but also ancillary data from sources including agriculture,
atmospheric and soil science, medicine, and economics. The traditional
definition of bioinformatics is "the systematic development and
application of computing systems and computational solution techniques
analyzing data obtained by experiments, modeling, database search, and
instrumentation regarding biological aspects." To date, this definition,
the activities described, and job opportunities have been primarily
in the fields of molecular genetics, genomic projects, and pharmaceuticals.
We have broadened and extended the definition of bioinformatics to include
"the delivery of the data and its synthesis to decision makers
and potential users, including the general public."
(Texas Tech)
10.Bioinformatics:The
application of computer technology to the management of biological information.
Specifically, it is the science of developing computer databases and
algorithms to facilitate and expedite biological research. Bioinformatics
is being used largely in the field of human genome research by the Human
Genome Project that has been determining the sequence of the entire
human genome (about 3 billion base pairs) and is essential in using
genomic information to understand diseases. It is also used largely
for the identification of new molecular targets for drug discovery.
(webopedia)