<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Wednesday, December 17, 2003  

Bioinformatics Moves Into the Mainstream - An Explosion of Data Is Being Tamed with New Systems By Jennifer Ouellette in The Industrial Physicist (Volume 9, Issue 6)
http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-9/iss-5/p14.html

Genome mappings, those completed and those in progress, have generated a vast amount of biological data, and now more than ever, scientists need sophisticated computational techniques to make sense of it. To meet those ever-increasing needs, bioinformatics is shifting from software designed for a specific project in academic laboratories to the commercial mainstream. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area loosely defined as the interface between the biological and computational sciences. In practice, the definition is narrower, according to Michael Zuker, a professor of mathematical sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. For Zuker and many others, the term applies to the use of computers to store, retrieve, analyze, or predict the composition or structure of biomolecules. These include genetic materials such as nucleic acids, as well as proteins, the end products of genes. ... The need to manage and analyze this data largely drives the current bioinformatics boom. 'Biology is awash in data,' says Eric Jakobsson. 'We cannot exploit the body of data that is currently out there -- we cannot mine it -- without computers, and now we cannot even handle the data in our own individual labs without sophisticated computation.'"

posted by Marcus Zillman | 2:17 PM
archives
subject tracers™