Bioinformatics and functional genomics

Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics Group, Cancer Research Center (CiC-IBMCC, CSIC/USAL), Salamanca, Spain... 

Pevsner, J. (2003) Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Wiley-Uss, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. 

BIOINFORMATICS AND COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY FOR PLANT FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS... 

The current situation in bioinformatics is characterized by an avalanche of DNA sequences from the human genome project and similar programs and, consequently, an exponential increase in DNA sequences but only a linear increase in protein 3D structures. While multitudes of putative genes have been annotated, up to 90% of all known DNA sequences have no assigned, i.e., experimentally proven, function. From this situation arise the need for interpretation of DNA sequences by information technology, and moreover, analysis of functional genomics and proteomics (see Chapter 15). 

Bioinformatics uses computers to create and maintain large electronic databases on genomes, protein sequences, and proteomes. With the help of protein prediction software, the computer analysis of genome sequences is producing thousands of new proteins of unknown structure and function. These proteins are called hypothetical proteins because they are predicted from the gene sequence. To know if they really exist would require that they be isolated, purified, and subjected to X-ray crystallography or... 

Marco F. Ramoni is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Technology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Associate Director of Bioinformatics at the Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. His interests are in Bayesian statistics and artificial intelligence, and their applications to functional and population genomics. 

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