How Has Bioinformatics Facilitated Medical Science?

Bioinformatics involves the use of computer-aided devices and mathematical tools to collect, analyze, and interpret biological information. Over the past few years, the quantity and quality of biological information have skyrocketed because of advancements in molecular biology and genomic technology. The applications of bioinformatics have made significant contributions to many subfields of biology, such as medical science, genetics, microbiology, and biochemistry. Let’s take a look at the three advanced categories of bioinformatics:

Medical informatics

This branch of bioinformatics deals with collection of information about patients including the history of a disease, medical consumption, and medical insurance information.

Imaging informatics

It deals with the collection of data related to specialized tests and reports, such as CT scans and X-rays.

Sensor informatics

Under this branch, information is primarily gathered from sensor-aided medical instruments and specialized health-monitoring machines, such as ultrasound device, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, sleep apnea machines, infusion and insulin pump, etc.

In addition to these pieces of information, the vast collection of data available in records of healthcare centers also enhances the clinical processes. With the help of these datasets, medical practitioners can predict diseases by analyzing patterns. They further assist in aiding drug discovery process as doctors can conduct analytical comparisons of genomics. Moreover, different computational tools have made the drug delivery process easy and specific as now diseased cells can be targeted directly. These big analytics are also used for assessing the performance of existing medical care system or policies that would be useful in improving the operational efficiency of healthcare management programs. Here we have discussed some advanced usages of bioinformatics:

Sequence Analysis

Sequence analysis involves studying a DNA, RNA or peptide sequence in order to understand its composition, functions, features, and evolution. Numerous computer-aided tools are used for studying the genome of various organisms. Analysing a collection of sequence does not, by itself, allow scientists to understand the biological functions of a living being. However, comparing these sequences to those of other organisms is helps in understanding the biological features of an organism from which the new sequence comes.

Prediction of Protein Structure

Analyzing the primary structure of proteins by microscopic study is easy. After all, primary proteins, i.e., amino acids have a simple structure and can be easily seen on the molecules of a DNA. But the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins are quite complicated. Whether we talk about Alpha Helix, Beta sheet, or the triose phosphate isomerase (TPI) molecule, it cannot be studied alone by using a microscope. For this purpose, scientists need the tools of bioinformatics.

Comparative Genomics

It is the branch of bioinformatics which deals with analyzing the genomic structure and functional relationship between different biological species. When the human genome project was started, it was a major question that how to sequence a 3 billion letter code in an organized manner. For this purpose, intergenomic maps were constructed which not just enabled the scientists to know about the role of each chromosome, but also traced the processes of evolution. Complete sequencing of human genes has also helped biologists in making medicines which can target more than 500 genes.

Hope we helped you get acquainted with the technical developments in the field of bioinformatics. To know more about this, read the various journals published by world-class bioinformatics centers for research. And, if loads of assignments are impeding you from learning more about it, then seek help from our bioinformatics assignment help experts.

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