Bioinformatics Basics: Applications in Biological Science and Medicine

Scientists in the throes of research use an extensive data bank to access structural information on proteins and nucleic acids. Meanwhile, geneticists use a highly specialized form of software to analyze the hybridization pattern of DNA chips. The past decade has been tremendously successful for biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. This success has been a result of astounding technical advancements in genome sequencing (genomics), protein identification (proteomics), and data analysis-collectively called bioinformatics. The exponential increase in computer processing and disk storage has served as a catalyst and been instrumental in the development of bioinformatics. Bioinformatics Basics: Applications in Biological Science and Medicine describes the origin of this field and the organization of public domain databases with an introductory tutorial for the services described. This book explains these services in a relatively simple fashion. Nevertheless, a biological background is necessary to understand and properly utilize the various software components and services described in this book. A basic biological background is also necessary for understanding the biological and medical significance of the collected data. Bioinformatics Basics is a fast growing field, and it will take some years for a stabilization to occur. Until then, hundreds of Internet sites allow us to search, compare, and manipulate this data in its relatively raw format. Bioinformatics Basics: Applications in Biological Science and Medicine concentrates on three major database clusters and relevant software tools that are maintained in the United States, Europe, and Japan, offering free access and analysis through the Internet.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION Biology and Bioinformatics The Nature of Publicly Funded Research Genomics and Proteomics Metabolic Databases Public and Proprietary Bioinformatics Computers in Biology and Medicine Computer Algorithms Super Computers Limitations of Computational Tools - Paradoxical Promise of the Internet The Need For Computational Tools New Approaches to Scientific Research With Computers Biological Macromolecules Proteins Protein Structure Protein Folding Protein Function DNA and RNA Structure Nucleic Acid Structure and Function Genetic Code DATABASES AND SEARCH TOOLS Computational Tools and Databases National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) Genome Net - Japanese Bioinformatics Servers Database Mining Tools Sequence Similarity Search Tools: BLAST Pattern Recognition Tools and Databases GENOME ANALYSIS DNA Cloning and PCR DNA Cloning Transcriptional Profiling Positional Cloning Polymer Chain Reaction PCR Technologies Under Development Monitoring Sequencing Progress Computational Tools for DNA Sequence Analysis Database Sequence Submission Data Retrieval Sequence Alignment Biological Function of Sequences - Annotation Identifying ORFs and URFs Redundancy in Sequence Data Better Search Engines for Better Computers? Genome Analysis The Genome Organization Mapping the Genome Human Genome Mapping Progress Functional Genomics Unidentified Reading Frames Cluster of Orthologous Groups PROTEOME ANALYSIS Proteomics 2D Page at Expasy Yeast Proteome Database Metabolic Reconstruction KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes The Functional Reconstruction Model E.coli Metabolic Database - EcoCyc Where should we be in the future? COMPUTER REVOLUTION IN NEUROBIOLOGY Human Brain Project The Influence of Computers in Science Computers in Neurobiology and the Mapping of the Human Brain From Molecules to Neurodegenerative Diseases Computer Simulations and Visualization of Molecular Structures Computer Simulations and Visualization of Molecular Structures Predictive Biology Protein Structure Prediction Structure Prediction Software APPENDIX

About the Author :
Rashidi; Hooman Consultant, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA,Buehler; Lukas K. Consultant, La Jolla, California, USA,