WANI Dictionary

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is a relatively new subfield of biology that involves extensive computational analyses and laboratory experiments to prepare data for the analysis.

It is impossible to completely eliminate overlap between bioinformatics and computational biology, but NIH's definition in 2000 stated that bioinfomatics includes data acquisition, storage, archiving, analysis, and visualization for understanding organisms [2]. In contrast, computational biology was limited to the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, methematical modeling, and computational simulation. Therefore, bioinfomatics is close to lab works — RNAseq is a part of bioinformatics — whereas computational biology is completely “dry”.

Definitions in the literature

• Bioinformatics is the use of computer databases and computer algorithms to analyze proteins, genes, and the complete collection of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that comprises an organism (the genome) [1].
• Research, development, or application of computational tools and approaches for expanding the use of biological, medical, behavioral or health data, including those to acquire, store, organize, archive, analyze, or visualize such data [2].