Biological data is
being generated from multi-disciplinary laboratories throughout the world at a
mind-boggling rate that is sufficient to overwhelm even the most sophisticated
research teams. Nowhere is this more evident than in molecular biology, where progress
has been propelled by advances in genomic technologies. Genomics is the
sequencing, assembling, and analysis of the structure and function of the
complete set of DNA within the cell of an organism. In 1975, Frederick Sanger,
who elucidated the amino acid sequence of insulin two decades earlier,
developed the first DNA sequencing technique, and in 1977 he determined the
5,386 nucleotides in the first fully sequenced DNA-based genome of a
bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria). Since this time, progress in
genomics has expanded 100 million-fold! The human genome project, completed in
2003, sequenced 20,500 genes. The challenge is no longer the acquisition of
information but rather the ability of researchers to utilize it to advance
their studies.
Making Sense of Data
Bioinformatics, a term
coined in 1970 by Paulien Hogeweg, a Dutch theoretical biologist, is a science
that merges biology, computer science, and information technology into a single
discipline. It involves the use of information technology to acquire, store,
manage, and analyze information in biological databases. These databases are
designed so that researchers can access and retrieve existing information and
add new information as it is generated. At the next level, it seeks to develop
mathematical algorithms, data mining techniques, and other resources that aid
in the analysis of existing data and permit its comparison with existing
information. It ultimately seeks to uncover new biological insights and obtain
a global perspective from which fundamental concepts in biology can be
determined. Gaining an all-inclusive picture of the normal activities of the
cell will provide a foundation for an understanding of their deviation in
disease.
In addition to DNA and
amino acid sequencing, as well as predicting the amino acid sequence of
proteins, bioinformatics has made it possible to trace the evolution of
organisms by measuring changes in their DNA, analyze highly complex regulatory
systems that lead to a change in the activity of proteins, and seek mutations
present in cancer cells.
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| Overwhelmed by the Data Deluge: Technological Advances and the Burden of Information for Researchers |
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