The New Avenues in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics has ignited the imagination of scientists, entrepreneurs and the general public. At the meeting place of two fast growth disciplines, biology and computer science Bioinformatics is one of the cornerstones of the new biology. It is clearly pivotal to the translation of high throughput projects such the human genome project into useful knowledge. Yet despite all this attention, there is no consensus on what exactly is Bioinformatics. There are several canonical topics, such as gene structure prediction, protein functional classification or structure prediction. The present book explores new frontiers in bioinformatics, such as Glycomics or the computational modeling of genetic processes. We also discuss confounding factors that we find crucial to the development of the field, such as the ability to protect and restrict intellectual property in the field, or the challenges involved in educating bioinformatics users. Finally, we touch upon some fundamental questions, such as what information is and how it is captured in biological systems. By bringing to the readers such a broad spectrum of reviews, we hope to capture the vibrant spirit of this young science and to truly represent the fast pace with which it is still developing.

Contenu
Opening.- Overview & Origin of Information.- General Overview on Bioinformatics.- When and Where did Information First Appear in the Universe?.- Biological Biodata, Evolutionary Data & Chirality.- Biological DatabasesInsights and Trends.- Bioinformatic Modeling of Transmembrane ?-Helical Bundles Based on Evolutionary Data.- Zipf, Zipping and Melting Points: Entropy and DNA.- Biological Chirality.- Genes & Genetics.- Splice Site Prediction in Eukaryote Genome Sequences.- Object-Oriented Modeling in Genetics.- Postgenomic Challenges in Plant Bioinformatics.- Transcriptome Analysis Through Expressed Sequences.- Glycoinformatics & Protein Data.- Challenges in Glycoinformatics 2003.- The Building Block Approach to Protein Structure Prediction.- Protein Fold-Recognition and Experimental Structure Determination.- Protein Clustering and Classification.- Education & Legal Aspects.- Training at the Bioinformatics Unit of Tel-Aviv University.- Patenting of Inventions in the Field of Bioinformatics.- Additional Links.- Associating COMT with Schizophrenia.