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Where it’s Used

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

The 21st century seems to be the age of biological advances. Scientists and companies across the world today are feverishly working on some project or the other that will help mankind. It’s a whole new area of research and development in which computing plays a critical role. Bioinformatics–applying computer power to analyze and handle biological information–comes into the picture here. There are thousands of projects running in the area. Here are some of them.

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The Human Genome Project



What probably sparked off the bioinformatics revolution is the Human Genome Project, which achieved the amazing feat of unraveling the human DNA and determining the sequences that form the various genes. The project was started in 1990 by the US Department of Energy and National Institute of Health. The estimated cost of the project was $3 billion, to be spent along its duration of 15 years. Over a 1,000 scientists from various countries were involved in it. What is even more amazing is the fact that a rough draft of the project was completed a year ahead of schedule in February, 2001. The draft sequence covers about 90 percent of the human genome. 

The gene sequence from the Human Genome Project has been helpful in identifying which human chromosome causes which diseaseThe database of the genome sequence information was freely released for the rest of the world, which helped accelerate the pace in bioinformatics. Companies and research institutes around the world used this database to make discoveries. Already more than 30 genes have been identified that play a direct roles in human diseases. The project is expected to be completed by 2003, with the complete gene sequence having 99.99 percent accuracy. 

Computing played a major role in the project, mainly because the project returned huge volumes of data that could not be analyzed without computers. One example is the search for a gene called Adrenoleukodystrophy. Some European scientists spent about two years searching for the gene, and sequencing the chromosome regions containing the gene. This information was then sent to the OakRidge National Laboratory’s servers. These run a program called GRAIL, short for Gene Recognition and Analysis Internet Link. The servers were able to return the gene sequence within minutes. 

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IT and bioinformatics



There are several projects running to accelerate the pace of bioinformatics by various labs around the world. IBM’s Deep Computing Institute, for instance, has a Bioinformatics and Pattern Discovery group, which use supercomputing to solve problems in molecular biology. They have developed two algorithms, called Teiresias and MUSCA, for gene-pattern discovery and alignment. Plus, they’ve developed a bio-dictionary, which is a collection of recurrent amino acid combinations. These are accessible from their website at

www.research.ibm.com/bioinformatics/home.html. Their servers are freely accessible over the Web for pattern discovery, multiple sequence alignment and protein annotation. Another algorithm developed by IBM is called SPLASH, which is used for pattern discovery. It’s a high performance algorithm, which can even give great results on a P II 266 MHz desktop. The Bioinformatics Group is a part of IBM’s Computational Biology Center, which is also handling other projects in Molecular Dynamics, Gene annotation, etc. 

Another player in the field is the Washington University’s School of Medicine, who have a project running called the GASP or Genome Automated Sequence Processor. This is a Perl software package that uses UNIX hardware to create

assembly-ready gene sequences. They offer the software for download to academic researchers from their website

on http://genome.wustl.edu/gsc/gasp

The list of players in the bioinformatics field is endless. Take for instance the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The institute creates public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome

data, etc.

The end results 



What good is research if it doesn’t lead to discovery? Surely bioinformatics is helping scientists make sensational discoveries. For instance, using the gene sequences from the Human Genome Project, scientists have been able to determine which human chromosomes can cause what disease. There have also been discoveries in other fields like agriculture, pharma, forestry and livestock. For example, by transferring certain genetic material in tomatoes, they can be made to reduce the risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease. Similarly, scientists have been able to remove the protein that causes certain allergy from peanuts. There are also transgenic potatoes that carry the gene for Hepatitis B, bananas that contain the Cholera vaccine and lettuce carrying the Measles vaccine. Such research wouldn’t be possible if scientists didn’t have the means to

analyze genetic material in plants and animals. 

Anil Chopra

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