Scope of Bioinformatics

Term Bioinformatics was invented by Paulien Hogeweg  and Ben Hesper in 1970 as

                       "the study of informatic processes in biotic systems".

Paulien Hogeweg is a Dutch theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher studying biological systems as dynamic information processing systems at many interconnected 
levels.

Bioinformatics is used in various fields of science.in this article I will discuss about it’s applications in  Medicine .

Biomedicine

The human genome will have profound effects on the fields of biomedical research and clinical medicine. Almost every disease has a genetic component. The completion of the human genome means that we can search for the genes directly associated with different diseases and begin to understand the molecular basis of these diseases more clearly.

There are four main areas of bio medicine in which BIOINFORMATICS is being used,

1.            Drug discovery
2.            Preventive medicine
3.            Personalized medicine
4. .          Gene therapy

Now let’s look more inside ..

                           Drug discovery

Bioinformatics is the very fast emerging field in our pharmaceutical industries.The work describes different aspects related to application of computers in drug designing, discovery and development, formulation designing.

 Some of the important pharmaceutical areas and the utility of bioinformatics technology are       

1.   identification and validation of new drug target 
2.    Design best Formulation     
3.    Used in industrial planning, allocation, scheduling, decision making    
4.    Used for analysis of formulation.
5.     Molecular Modeling
6.     Binding site Prediction
7.     Docking
8.     Ligand design
9.     QSAR
10.     Screening
11.     ADME Toxicity

Basic bioinformatics tools are already accessed in certain clinical situations to aid in diagnosis and treatment plans. For example,

                  PubMed    is accessed freely for biomedical journals cited in Medline.

                    OMIM     (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) a search tool for human                                            genes and genetic disorders, is used by clinicians to obtain                                       information on genetic disorders in the clinic or hospital setting.

An example of the application of bioinformatics in new therapeutic advances is the development of novel designer targeted drugs such as imatinib  mesylate (Gleevec), which interferes with the abnormal protein made in chronic myeloid leukemia.(Imatinib mesylate was synthesized at Novartis Pharmaceuticals by identifying a lead in a high throughput screen for tyrosine kinase inhibitors and optimizing its activity for specific kinases.)

 The ability to identify and target specific genetic markers by using bioinformatics tools facilitated the discovery of this drug.

Bioinformtics Softwares

The different software’s like

1.  design-ease
2.   stat-ease
3.   design-expert

 are available for all the aspects in designing the formulation makes the costly and time consuming process very easy, fast and cost effective.

 Bioinformatics Portal is also available named “ExPASy” which includes hundreds of Web sources for drug designing such as,

•            Softwares
•             Databases

  

  Drug desig 

Personalized medicine

Clinical medicine will become more personalized with the development of the field of pharmacogenomics ( the study of how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs). Today, doctors have to use trial and error to find the best drug to treat a particular patient as those with the same clinical symptoms can show a wide range of responses to the same treatment response to drugs.

 pharmacogenomics, is likely to bring about a new age of personalized medicine; patients will carry gene cards with their own unique genetic profile for certain drugs aimed at individualized therapy and targeted medicine free from side effects.

    Preventive medicine

With the specific details of the genetic mechanisms of diseases being unraveled, the development of diagnostic tests to measure a person’s susceptibility to different diseases may become a distinctive reality. Preventive actions such as change of lifestyle or having treatment at the earliest possible stages when they are more likely to be successful, could result in huge advances in  struggle to conquer disease.

       Gene therapy

In the not too distant future, the potential for using genes themselves to treat disease may become a reality. Gene therapy is the approach used to treat, cure or even prevent disease by changing the expression of a person’s genes.

Partners in Bioinformatics Research  Business  in Pakistan..

Some of the prominent research institutes in Biology and Medicine might be explored as possible partners in bioinformatics business…

          such as,

1.   HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi

2.   Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, Karachi

3.   Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology, Lahore

4.   NIBGE, Faisalabad

5.   Aga Khan University, Karachi

            Bioinformatics  Research    Business  in World

India.

                   India has a vibrant generic pharmaceutical industry. Apart from this there is impressive growth in biotechnology sector in the past decade. Biotech products produced in India exceed1 Billion dollars. Another estimate puts it to around 700 million $.

Bioinformatics Companies in India

 In India most of the bioinformatics Companies have been born in clusters where there are a large number of IT biotech, and pharmaceutical companies.

1. Strand Genomics

2. SysArris

3. SciNova Technologies

4. Ocimum Biosolutions Inc.

5. Wipro

6. Infosys

7. Cognizant Technologies

8. Satyam Computers

9. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

10. IBM India

11. Intel

12. Sun Microsystems.

Canada

Keeping in view the growing importance of bioinformatics as a technology, Canada has taken the initiative to carry out research and set up businesses with collaboration between the industry, government and the research community. Compared to the American and the European Bioinformatics industry, the Canadian industry is more competitive as far as the quality of programs, technology and skilled individuals is concerned.

Bioinformatics institutes in Canada:

     National Research Council

     Canadian Bioinformatics Resource (Halifax)

     Canadian Bioinformatics Resource (CBR).

Australia

Developments within Australia's bioinformatics capability include unique databases and libraries, innovative screening and analysis technologies, and various bioinformatics programs.

Japan

The chief promoter of Japanese bioinformatics industry continues to be Japan Biological Informatics Consortium (JBiC). JBiC is an organization of large chemical and pharmaceutical companies that aims to improve the international competitiveness of the Japanese biotechnology industry by using bioinformatics to the speed of R&D in all sectors of biotechnology. JBiC has spent approximately USS130 million till date on various  bioinformatics projects. JBiC focuses on SNP, protein analysis, and establishment of ecommerce  systems for the biotech industry. It coordinates with various public-funded  research institutes, private sector companies and the various ministries associated with

Japanese biotechnology such as Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and

Technology (MECSST), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF),

Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), and

 Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).

A number of pharmaceutical majors also play a critical role in promoting bioinformatics in the country .They include

1.    Ajinomoto Co., Inc.,

2.    Ono Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd.,

3.    Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

4.    Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.,

Europe

Bioinformatics has attained maturity in Europe thanks to combined efforts of government, biological research institutes and private companies from Pharmaceuticals and medicine. The development of bioinformatics is more pronounced in Denmark.

 institutes of  Bioinformatics in Europe

1.    The center for Biological Sequence (CBS) group

2.    University College London (UCL)

3.    UK Medical Research Council Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Center

4.    European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

5.    European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI)

• The Welcome Trust

• Inpharmatica

• Ace Biosciences

• Aros Applied Biotechnology

• Exiqon

• H. Lundbeck

• Maxygen

• MDS Proteomics

• Natimmune,

• NovoNordisk

• Novozymes

United States

University of California Davis granted US$95 million for bioinformatics program. Virginia Polytechnic Institute is investing US$100 million in Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.

University of Philadelphia, George Mason University and University of Florida also offer bioinformatics courses.

They offer courses at graduate and postgraduate level. Some universities are offering Ph.D. level programs too

Besides universities, public research institutions and private companies are also actively involved in bioinformatics.

Welcome Bioinformaticians

We have put our efforts to facilitate students of Bioinformatics. You will find all information and helping material regarding Bioinformatics under one roof. Find tutorials, notes, Presentations, Assignments and Research papers an All About Bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics is a field that has been developing over the last thirty years. It is a discipline that represents a marriage between biotechnology and computer technologies and has evolved through the convergence of advances in each of these fields. Today bioinformatics is a field that encompasses all aspects of the application of computer technologies to biological data. Computers are used to organize, link, analyze and visualize complex sets of biological data.

 With the advent of high throughput technologies such as Next Generation Sequencing and proteomics, bioinformatics has become essential to the biological sciences in general. In the past, laboratories were able to manage and analyze their experimental data in spreadsheets. Many research labs now require the expertise of dedicated bioinformatics core centers or their own in-house bioinformatics.