Throughout the 1990s, they tended to use bioinformatics to create and cull genetic data.
Many researchers confuse the data generated by bioinformatics with information.
As the technology of bioinformatics outpaces the science of biology, the science risks becoming a "black box", the inner workings of which few will be able to comprehend.To avoid this, biologists need an ever broader set of skills.
And empirical estimates are being replaced by mathematical exactness.Welcome to the world of bioinformatics—a branch of computing concerned with the acquisition, storage and analysis of biological data.
Bioinformatics is actually a spectrum of technologies, covering such things as computer architecture (eg, workstations, servers, supercomputers and the like), storage and data-management systems, knowledge management and collaboration tools, and the life-science equipment needed to handle biological samples.
Martin Ferguson, senior vice-president for bioinformatics at Ardais Corporation, a firm that helps researchers assemble and maintain large repositories of clinical samples, argues that most of the technologies and standards that are needed already exist.
"The push now is to make the project high throughput with bioinformatics".
Yet, for all the turbulence in the industry, the bioinformatics juggernaut remains on track, fuelled by new forces changing the pharmaceutical industry.Gene genieIn retrospect, the marriage of genetics and computers was pre-ordained.
"Change happens by making something so delicious and so affordable, everyone chooses it," says the firm's boss, Josh Tetrick.To accomplish this, Hampton Creek has assembled a team that includes experts in biochemistry, bioinformatics and food science along with a number of chefs.
The services on offer, in biotech's case, include research done on contract for others and "bioinformatics", using computers to make sense of biological data.However, the industry is still small.
Once an obscure part of computer science, bioinformatics has become a linchpin of biotechnology's progress.
