Bioinformatics

BIOINFORMATICS

Editorial
BIOINFORMATICS: BIOLOGY BY OTHER MEANS
The success of bioinformatics in its application to genomics and proteomics has complicated the relationship
of computation withexperimental biology. There is a
need to attend to our pressing needs of bioinformatics
applications without forgetting other, perhaps less evident
but equally important, aspects of computation inbiology.

MAINSTREAM BIOINFORMATICS
In the field of genomics and proteomics, bioinformatics
provides the key connection between all different forms
of data gathered by new high-throughputtechniques such
as systematic sequencing, proteomics, expression arrays,
yeast two-hybrid (y2h), and high throughput screenings
(Figure 1). We will soon have at our disposal hundreds
of genomes, thousandsof protein structures, protein
interactions determined by y2h and tens of thousands
of genes with their expression monitored in hundreds
of experiments, and hundreds of thousands ofsinglenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
Handling this massive amount of data requires powerful integrated bioinformatics systems. Issues related
to database inter-operability, information representation
and dataclassification (the much abused term ‘ontology’)
are currently being addressed. Also, in fields such as
automatic extraction of information from the biological
literature, activity has increasedgreatly since the first
papers were published five years ago.
BIOINFORMATICS IN THE STUDY OF
SPECIFIC BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
A less obvious effect in bioinformatics is perhaps the
integration in the dailywork on molecular biology and
biomedical research. Laboratories are already hiring
their own local bioinformatics experts to keep pace
with the growing set of available techniques, while stilldeeply immersed in specific biological questions. This
detailed work is only possible thanks to the availability
of effective methods on the World Wide Web, reliable
service providers, and the...