BIOINFORMATICS: OVERVIEW AND ITS SCOPE IN ‘OMICS’ TECHNOLOGIES

Bioinformatics uses a framework of computer science and machine learning technologies to connect various disciplines such as biology, mathematics, statistics, genomics, proteomics, computers etc. The recent expansion of omics technologies such as genomic, transcriptomics, proteomics, epi-genomics that aimed to address the understanding of system biology; for example studying genomes of the various organisms say humans, plants, animals and deciphering relationship of sequence, structure & functions; development of body cells & tissues; understanding its metabolism as well as communication networks and pathways; interactions with environment; disease mechanisms etc.; requires parallel advancement and improvement in computer science & information technology. These omics technologies have generated massive and complex data. The need of accurate analysis of this data has led to emergence of this new research field of bioinformatics, which uses advanced computational tools to obtain global knowledge about living organisms and their interaction with environment. The current review discusses the advancement in bioinformatics, its applications and advantages and how it has evolved as an integrative approach to provide solutions to omics data for better understanding of biological systems.