The Role of Bioinformatics in Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemics

On the 14th of February, 2020, one of our bioinformatics department faculty members, Arli Aditya Parikesit, published a popular scientific article in the opinion column of the Jakarta Post. The article, with the title of “How Bioinformatics Bolster the Fight against the Coronavirus” discusses the origin of the COVID-19 pandemics, the scientific community efforts in dealing with the outbreak, and the important role of bioinformatics in retrieving the SARS-CoV-2 virus biological data as the blueprint to design the drug and vaccine for COVID-19. In the article, steps in rational drug and vaccine design for COVID-19 are briefly elaborated, as well as the development of the COVID-19 molecular-based diagnostic tools. The article also mentions the role of super-computers (computers with at least 10,000 CPUs) to provide fine-grained molecular simulation for the drug candidates.

The article also emphasizes that xenophobia and racial humiliation in regards to the origin of COVID-19 should
be condemned. The primary message of this article is to urge a collaboration among academia, government and businesses to establish a centralized genomic database such as GenBank in order to provide a more coordinated response towards the pandemic.