2.0 APPLICATIONS OF BIOINFORMATICS

2.0 APPLICATIONS OF BIOINFORMATICS

Particularly, bioinformatics utilizes a broad range of computational methods including sequence and structural alignment, database design and data mining, macromolecular geometry, phylogenetic tree construction, gene finding, expression data clustering, and prediction of protein structure (Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, 2001). In general, the applications of bioinformatics are extremely crucial in today’s modern world. There are many uses of the bioinformatics software that had assisted the world in many ways for better human lives. Below are some of the examples that indicate the applications of bioinformatics software in certain fields.

• Application of bioinformatics in drug discovery
• Application of bioinformatics in cancer research
• Application of bioinformatics in genetics
• Application of bioinformatics in medicine
• Application of bioinformatics in biotechnology
• Application of bioinformatics agriculture
• Application of bioinformatics in microbiology
• Application of bioinformatics in molecular medicine

Nevertheless, all the applications of bioinformatics are classified under three main groups which are sequence analysis, function analysis and structure analysis (Shrestha, 2010). Firstly, sequence analysis is where the application that analyzes various types of sequence information and it is able to evaluate between similar types of information that are grouped under this category. Secondly, function analysis is where the application is able to examine the function engraved within the sequence and assists in predicting the functional interaction between various genes or protein. Thirdly, structure analysis involves the structure of proteins in which the area of RNA and proteins plays a major role in the interaction with any other thing. Also, it has the ability to predict the structure and the possible roles of the structure of proteins or RNA (Shrestha, 2010). Below indicates the summary of the application of bioinformatics classification.

Table 1: Summary of the application bioinformatics classification
Sequence Analysis	Function Analysis	Structure Analysis
Sequence Database Searching Sequence Alignment Genome Comparison  Gene & Promoter Prediction Phylogeny Motif Discovery	Gene Expression Predicting Metabolic Pathway Modeling Protein Interaction Prediction Protein Sub-cellular    Localization Prediction	Nucleic Acid Structure Prediction Protein Structure Prediction Protein Structure Classification Protein Structure Comparison

*Adapted from Shrestha, R. (2010, June 5). What is Bioinformatics? – A general perspective.

In regards to bioinformatics for pharmacy, it is linked to pharmaceutics bioinformatics. Pharmaceutics bioinformatics is defined as a wide scientific area of computer based technologies, informatics and computational methods that interacts with all areas linked to the discovery and development of drugs (Pharmaceutics Bioinformatics, 2012). Besides, it is a tool for mapping processes of cells and understanding how to use these properties efficiently for the development of new drugs. In other words, pharmaceutics bioinformatics is the solution to rational drug discovery as it decreases the number of trials in the screening of the drug compound (Babu, n.d.). Consequently, pharmaceutics bioinformatics is able to identify potential drug targets for a particular disease via high power computing workstations and software. Also, this kind of applications has lead to a new area in pharmacogenomics using genome sequence in which potential targets for drug development is assumed from the genome sequences (Babu, n.d.). For instance, BLAST is used in relation to pharmacogenomics.