Rajendra Prasad Pangeni

Kathmandu:

Bioinformatics is the combination of biology and information technology i.e. application of information technology in the study of biological sciences. But specifically, bioinformatics is regular biology appropriately dressed so that it can fit into the computer. The subject is generally taken up by candidates who wish to make a career in biological sciences e.g. management of biological databases in large industries. Bioinformatics is also known as computational biology or computational molecular biology.

Aims and goals of bioinformatics

Bioinformatics, being very vast, its does not have an end in itself, however, the aims and goals of bioinformatics can be written as follows.

1 It organises data so that one can access them from any part of the globe and can submit new entries.

2 It helps to analyse the data which requires knowledge of computational theory and understanding of biology.

3 These tools can be used to analyse data and interpret the result in a biologically meaningful manner. Hence, one can conduct global analysis of all the existing data to uncover the common principles that apply to all organisms.

4 The main goal is to find out how living thing works at a cellular and molecular level and understand biological problems, find computational solutions to address those biological problems.

Practical applications of Bioinformatics

The following are the practical applications of bioinformatics.

1 Drug design and gene therapy: It is the complicated process which could be started only at the genetic level of the organism from isolation of DNA sequence to model protein structure.

2 Application in medical sciences: Identification of genes that code for proteins different than normal ones provide the basis for explaining causes of diseases and help in finding potential drug targets.

3 Experimental genomics: Unique combination of vaccines could be developed and prescribed to the patients to avoid unnecessary treatments and costs avoiding side effects by developing computational screening to guide people for nutritional intake and early detection of diseases.

4 Functional genomics: Genomes refers to the study of genome which is applied to understand the genes, their products (proteins), to find out how this makes the organism i.e. human being or living system operates.

5 Microbial, plant and animal genomics: Manufacturing new fermentation products such as antibiotics like penicillin vitamin B12, vinegar (acetic acid), Baker’s yeast, alcoholic beverages like beer, whisky, wine, etc.

6 Insilico testing: The important practical application of BI is the Insilco testing or computational simulation of experimental biology. This is the clinical trial of certain drugs or vaccines in the computer to predict animal and human clinical trials to avoid risk of life.

Skills required to be a bioinformatician

To enter and work in the amazing field of BI, the following skills are required.

1 A fairly deep background of biology such as molecular biology is essential including molecular

biophysics and understanding of central dogma of

biology.

2 Knowledge of working experience on command line computer environment Linux or UNIX operating system and computer programming such as C++ and scripting language such as Perl.

3 Knowledge in other areas such as molecular evolution, statistics and probabilistic methods, databases design, thermodynamics, etc. could be an added advantage.

Career in bioinformatics

Nepal holds great promise in the field of bioinformatics. Nepal is rich in natural resources with a large number of plants and animals of which some are endemic, endangered and under threat, too. To find out information about each species and maintenance including location, uses, height, feeding behaviour, life cycle, genetic information, incubation period, would be the primary task of a bioinformatician and data should be available to scientific community around the globe. The first step in conservation of natural resources in Nepal would be recording different aspects of plant and animal species found in Nepal using computational methods. Another task of bioinformaticians would be to predict the structure of chemicals present in these plants and design new drugs on the basis of chemicals here.

Bioinformatics has lots of scope in agriculture and medical and health care in Nepal, specially, in crop testing and developing new varieties of agricultural products that could be a great contribution for the people living in the more remote regions.