What is bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is the science that deals with computational analysis of biological information. It is essential in the field of genomics, where DNA sequence analysis is crucial to understanding a wide variety of organisms. Bioinformatics is important as it deals with the increasingly large datasets produced by scientists every day. As these datasets reach larger and larger sizes, humans are no longer able to effectively process and make meaning of these datasets. Thankfully, bioinformaticians are able to use programs to have the computers do the heavy lifting.
How do bioinformaticians use programs to perform their analyses?
Bioinformaticians write computer programs using code. This code is written into a language that can be translated into a set of instructions a computer can understand. Given a proper set of instructions, computers can perform the biological analyses needed. Below is an example of a python code block; python is one of the most common languages used in bioinformatics. Just like English, python has a proper syntax which allows the computer to interpret the instructions.
print("hello")
my_number = 4 + 7
print(my_number)
Try copying the print("hello") line into the python terminal below and click the play button. What happens? Try changing the "hello" to your name, what’s the difference in the output?
While this code is very simple, the principles behind more complex bioinformatics programs remain the same. Below you will find a tutorial to bioinformatics program, click the button to try it yourself!