Bioinformatics and the Human Genome Project.
Bioinformatics is the combination of life sciences and technology, especially in the field of electronic data basing. These databases consist of the human genome, the protein sequence and many others. Using this technology makes it easy for scientists to compare different DNA, and also help create three dimensional models. As new technology comes about, so do many businesses that want to offer their services to contribute to the growth of bioinformatics. Not to mention how the stock market was as a result of the development in bioinformatics. One day when this technology becomes more advance this joining of technology and of life sciences will help us understand the human genome better.
I. History/Background.
Bioinformatics is a necessary science. As a race we advance everyday in leaps and bounds and in terms of biomedical progression more has been achieved in such a relatively new field than could ever have been imagined. Although researchers and geneticists have used computerized databases to store and analyze biological data since the 1960's the term bioinformatics was not used till the mid-1980's. Bioinformatics can be defined as "The mathematical, statistical and computing methods that aim to solve biological problems using DNA and amino acid sequences and related information.9" .
A fundamental principal of biology is that the genes within each DNA cell are encoded with RNA, which produces the proteins that regulate all of the biological processes within an organism. The human body is made up of an estimated 1012 cells, each of which contains 23 pairs of chromosomes that are comprised of approximately 20,000 - 40,000 genes which in turn contain some 3 billion pairs of DNA bases.10 Although much information has been retrieved and analyzed, there still lacks a complete understanding of the role DNA plays in specific diseases or the function of the thousands of proteins that are produced.
