and software to manipulate and analyze
biological data; they also use computers
to develop and apply certain mathemati-
cal methods to analyze and simulate mol-
ecular biological processes.
Another good reason for this mar-
riage of biology and computers is obvious
in today’s world: the genome—human
and otherwise. To take on the giant task
of mapping genomes (the entire collec-
tion of genes in a species), scientists have
turned to the computer, using it for such
studies as genomic sequencing, computa-
tional genome analysis, and protein
structure analysis.
Computational power is needed for a
plethora of other tasks, too. For example,
it is being used to develop methods to pre-
dict the structure and function of newly
discovered proteins and structural RNA
sequences in humans and other organisms, to group protein sequences into families of
related sequences, and to generate phylogenetic trees (or lineage trees, such as the
human relationship to apes) to examine evolutionary connections.
What is bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is a field that evolved by joining biology and information science. In the
past few decades, advances in molecular biology and the increase in computer power
have allowed biologists to accomplish tasks such as mapping large portions of genomes
of several species. For example, a baker’s yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiaehas been
sequenced in full.
Humans have not been exempt, either: The Human Genome Project was completed
in 2003. It determined the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits (bases)
for humans, identified all human genes, and made all the associated information acces-
sible for further biological study. Since that time, other universities and agencies have
taken on the task of analyzing the results, such as determining the gene number, exact
locations, and functions. Such a deluge of information has also made it necessary to
store, organize, and index all the sequence data, which is where information science, or
the method to store and work on such large amounts of data, comes in the form of
bioinformatics. The computer experts who deal with such information are known as
bioinformatics specialists.
317MATH IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES
Charles Darwin took into account Mendel’s ideas
about genetics in forming his theory of evolution.
Library of Congress.