Introduction to Bioinformatics: Plausibly asked questions

BNFO 301

Introduction to Bioinformatics
Course at a Glance: Plausibly Asked Questions

Spring 2006

Questions

What about me? I don't know anything about computer programming!

What about me? I don't know anything about molecular biology!

What about ME? I DO know {molecular biology|computer programming}.
Am I going to be bored out of my mind?

Answers

What about me? I don't know anything about computer programming!
First of all, programming is a lot easier than you think, so long as you don't have to worry about how to access data and how to make user interfaces. BioLingua relieves you of those responsibilities, allowing you to concentrate on the pure logic of what you want to do -- and logic is something that people in science are good at.

Furthermore, the language evolves according to user's needs. It tries to hold to the principle that simple biological concepts should be expressed in simple ways. Needless to say it is sometimes fiendishly difficult to explain to a dumb computer something that is perfectly apparent to a human. When a user encounters a concept that is not easily rendered in the language, the BioLingua Help Desk will attempt to implement an easy short cut.

What about me? I don't know anything about molecular biology!
Fortunately, molecular biology is basically simple, because biological molecules tend to behave the way the world of our daily acquaintance behaves. While there is an incredible amount of molecular biology you COULD learn, you need to know very little of it to understand what's behind a specific biological problem. I'll explain what little bit you need for a specific unit. But, it's primarily your responsibility to identify and make me aware of what you need to know.

What about ME? I DO know {molecular biology | computer programming}.
Am I going to be bored out of my mind?
I doubt it. This isn't a course on either topic but rather on bioinformatics. You'll have more time to spend on that and on the research project.

What is bioinformatics anyway?
One plausible definition:

The application of information technology to the study of biological problems

or (equivalently in my opinion):

The analysis and rationalization of biological information on a grand scale

Biological problems include understanding the behavior of a cell, the progress of a disease, or the functioning of an ecosystem. Information technology include the tools that have been developed to analyze and manipulate large data sets, such as genomic sequences, determination of levels of RNA transcripts or proteins, and enzymatic activities. Data may be approached from the top down, parsing and analyzing the huge amount of data to produce quantities that we can more easily grasp, or from the bottom up, combining derived quantities according to a model to try to recreate a complex part of reality.