The answer would be Bioinformatics. Bioinformatics may sound like a fringe science that came out of a sci-fi movie or fantasy novel. Still, it is a real branch of science that combines all those mentioned above to process massive amounts of information that are hard to process manually.

According to the origin of its name, Bioinformatics consists of “Bio” and “Informatics”, which means Bioinformatics is a combination of Biology and Technical Information. In general, Bioinformatics is defined as the application of computational and analytical tools to capture and interpret biological data.

The birth of modern bioinformatics cannot be separated from the development of biotechnology in the 70s, when a US scientist made an innovation in recombinant DNA technology. This enabled scientists to manipulate DNA. The DNA sequence that codes for proteins is called a gene. Then genes are transcribed into mRNA, and mRNA is translated into protein. This elaborate information of DNA to RNA to Protein is becoming a dogma of molecular biology. The need to collect, store, and analyze biological data from DNA, RNA, or Protein databases is increasingly spurring the development of bioinformatics studies. Bioinformatics was born of the initiative of computer scientists, drawing on artificial intelligence. They think that all phenomena in nature can be created artificially by simulating their symptoms.

Bioinformatics is essential for data management in the biology world and modern medicine. The primary tool for Bioinformatics is a software program that relies on internet access. Currently, the development of the biological sciences is greatly influenced by bioinformatics. It is undeniable that bioinformatics has accelerated the progress of biological science. Furthermore, when viewed from a more specific field of science, the progress is greatly influenced by advances in bioinformatics. The more advanced bioinformatics in some fields of science (indicated by the number of software available), the more advanced the field is.

That has been said, leading us to the use of

Bioinformatics in Mankind’s Life :

1. Bioinformatics as a tool to detect new diseases.

There are several ways to diagnose a disease; among them is the detection of genes from disease-carrying agents by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In PCR, the primary technique for DNA amplification, it requires sequence data from the genome of the agent concerned and software. This is where Bioinformatics plays its role.

2. Bioinformatics for Drug/Medicine Discovery.

One way to find a drug for a disease is to identify a compound that suppresses the proliferation of the agent that causes it. Because many factors influence the agent’s proliferation, these factors are the targets to identify the compound. One of them is amino acid replacement analysis. This technique was used randomly, so it took a long time. After Bioinformatics was developed, the analyzed protein data could be accessed freely by anyone, including both amino acid sequence data and its 3D structure; all of these processes could be completed faster and more efficiently, both in terms of time and financially.

3. Bioinformatics in The Clinical Field

The role of Bioinformatics in the clinical field is often referred to as clinical informatics. The application of clinical informatics is the management of clinical data from patients through the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), developed by Clement J. McDonald at Indiana University School of Medicine in 1972. McDonald first applied EMR to 33 patients with diabetes. Now, EMR has been used for various diseases. Stored data includes laboratory diagnostic results, consultation findings, suggestions, X-rays, heart rate measurements, etc. With this data, the doctor will be able to determine the appropriate treatment for a particular patient’s condition. Furthermore, by reading the human genome, it will be possible to identify a person’s genetic disease, thereby making personal care for patients more accurate.

Until now, it has been known that several genes play roles in certain diseases and that their positions on the chromosomes are known. This information is available and can be viewed on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) homepage in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) section (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=OMIM). OMIM is a search tool for human genes and genetic diseases. In addition to information on the location of genes associated with some diseases, OMIM also provides information on the disease’s symptoms and treatment, as well as its genetic characteristics. Thus, doctors who find patients carrying certain genetic diseases can study them in detail by accessing the OMIM home page.

As one example, if we want to learn about breast cancer, we need to enter the words “breast cancer,” and after searching, we will find out the various types of breast cancer. If we want to know more details about one of them, we have to click on the type of breast cancer we want to learn more about, and we’ll get detailed information about it and the position of the gene that causes it in the chromosome.

4. Bioinformatics for Identification of New Disease Agents.

Bioinformatics also provides an essential tool for identifying disease agents whose causes are unknown. Bioinformatics plays several vital roles in this regard. The first is in the process of reading the Coronavirus genome. Because sequence data for several coronaviruses are available in databases such as GenBank, EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), and DDBJ (DNA Data Bank of Japan), these sequences can be used to design primers for amplifying SARS virus DNA. Second, in the process of looking for similar sequences (homology alignment) of viruses obtained from other viruses. The third is to analyze the extent to which a virus is different from other viruses.