by Jamie Rider

Created on: December 27, 2010   Last Updated: December 29, 2010

Bioinformatics is a growing career opportunity within the realm of biological sciences. Specifically, Bioinformatics is the junction between Biology, Computer Science and Information Technology. In the field most concerned with evolution, the explosion of genome research and the associated data is driving a similar evolutionary change in the methods uses to store, process and predict scientific outcomes. People interested in pursuing this field should be passionate about computer information systems, database design, and proficient in standard programming techniques related to both. 

However, without an interest in and understanding of microbiology, this field is not for even the most skilled database developers. The person must match the position, and requires a person capable of not just data handling but appreciating the patterns and implications of the data processing results. 

Microbiology has increasingly become an area of science where detailed data collection is critical to experiments, process, and finding documentation. An old adage of biology is that unlike the consistent results seen in the other physical sciences, given a consistent set of conditions, biological samples will do whatever they please. By providing centralized and cross-discipline databases, Bioinformatics is a discipline intended to put order to the chaos of molecular biology and genomic data.

Individuals working in this field need a particular mix of technical expertise and broad-based biology backgrounds. While understanding the data is not always critical to proper cataloging, the efficiency and clarity of any database system is often a reflection of the system owners’ understanding of the larger picture. Besides cataloging data, Bioinformatics has evolved to include the active analysis and interpretation of experimental results. 

A related occupational specialty is Computational Biology, the development of software tools to access and compare data across platforms and to develop software algorithms that interpret the relationships that exist in large bodies of biological data. These programs allow for location of gene’s within a sequence, protein structure and function prediction, as well as the grouping of various proteins into related categories or groups.

Bioinformatics allows molecular biologists and research geneticists to mine existing genome data across special lines to find the best animal models for human disease research. It allows scientists to leverage the existing body of knowledge to avoid duplication and move the molecular biology and genetic fields farther forward with each inquiry, minimizing time lost to replicating existing data. This also allows scientists to both model without the use of live animal subjects in initial stages of inquiry, reducing the perception of needless cruelty.

Quite literally, this field has changed the face of genetics inquiries and molecular biology by taking much of the hypothesis and experiment design out of the laboratory and into the microprocessor. Bioinformatics allows scientists to put order to the staggering volumes of data available in this field.

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