What is Bioinformatics? What exactly do we study in this field?

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Bioinformatics was founded by Margaret Dayhoff in the 1960s. At that time, sequencing a single gene or protein could earn you a Ph.D as it was long and cumbersome. But there  days,  “next generation” sequencing machines can output more than a billion DNA bases per day.

The DNA ( standing for Deoxyribo Nuclei Acid) molecules in all living things are made up of only four building blocks called “nitrogeneous bases”-nickname A (Adenine), T (Thymine), G (Guanine) and C (Cytosine). They bond to form pairs: A always bonds with T; C always bonds with G. The sequence of the bases ultimately determines an organism’s traits.

Biologists often rely on models for their work, and computational biologists use large set of sequence data to design models of biological systems. But all models include assumptions that don’t perfectly represent biological reality. Typically every model is wrong. After comparing the results of a model to experimental data, scientists “refine the model as a way to get a better approximation and confirm theories about how biology works.”

Working in this field requires an eclectic skill set. In order to create the models you need a technical background, but you also need enough knowledge of the biology to understand what you are trying to model, why, and the nuances in the biological process.

Researchers work on exciting projects, including how the three-dimensional shape of DNA affects where proteins can bind to it. These proteins, known as transcription factors (TFs) help determine which other proteins are produced in a cell. The proteins are so fundamental that “whatever you’re studying, soon enough you are going to bump into a transcription factor.”

The researchers also looks at metagenome. It is a concept that explores how DNA sequences in the same environment can regulate each other even if they are from different species (e.g cow and the bacterium). Very simple systems, with simple parts, can collectively have very complex behavior..Interesting isn’t it?

Few years back, the discussion was about genome..Now the discussion is towards interactome. These are set of all interactions between molecules in a cell. Computational biologists create 3-D images that represent all these interactions. 

When the field began, scientists were looking at isolated systems. But now they are zooming out.  The amount of information balloons super rapidly and becomes one of the models and then the problem becomes how do you turn that into useful knowledge for our brains? How does that inform biology? That is where the big challenge lies.