Applications of Bioinformatics

The preliminary role of bioinformaticians was to organize the available data into a format that is easy to access, visualize and analyze. Therefore, the initial thrust area in bioinformatics was the development of Databases, which served as electronic filing cabinets for biological data. Subsequently, computational power was   finding answers to the Living organisms have been subjected to innumerable studies at various levels viz., structure (morphology, anatomy), function (physiology, biochemistry), inheritance (genetics), evolution, taxonomy, etc. to name a few. Scientific research over the last several decades, in addition to the above approaches, has also attempted to unravel the molecular basis of processes that are integral to organism biology. These studies were initially focused on a subset of relatively less complex organisms that came to be popularly referred to as Model Organisms or Model Systems. Such organisms belonged to a wide range of life forms ranging from viruses and bacteria to higher plants and animals. Notable examples include Drosophila, C. elegans, Arabidopsis, mice, yeast and more recently Oryza sativa, Medicago, Lotus, etc. Molecular genetic studies on many of these life forms led to the development of markers and linkage data, which in turn, facilitated whole genome-sequencing programs to extract the encoded information (genome sequence) that supports life. Subsequent analysis of gene function based on expression profiling (transcriptome studies) and mutant analysis (functional genomics) contributed further to our understanding of biological systems. Rapid developments in sequencing chemistry ushered in an era of high throughput genome and transcriptome sequencing, which led to a virtual explosion of biological data across the world transgressing the limits of “model systems” for biological studies. Seminal developments in Bioinformatics centered mainly on the development of Databases, which functioned as electronic filing cabinets for the organization and analysis of large amounts of biological data that were generated from a variety of such studies.

Some of the major application areas of bioinformatics are

1. Molecular medicine using Drug design, gene therapy,


2. Waste cleanup using information gained from microbial genomes


3. Generation of clean energy


4. Design of Bio-catalysts  and improved strains of bacterial strains for production of industrially useful products such as antibiotics, enzymes, metabolites


5. Improved and better, designer crops such as with increased adaptability to altered climatic conditions, high yielding, production of edible vaccines, improved nutritional characteristics