Use of Bioinformatics Tools in Different Spheres of Life Sciences

Abstract

The pace, by which scientific knowledge is being produced and shared today, was never been so fast in the past. Different areas of science are getting closer to each other to give rise new disciplines. Bioinformatics is one of such newly emerging fields, which makes use of computer, mathematics and statistics in molecular biology to archive, retrieve, and analyse biological data. Although yet at infancy, it has become one of the fastest growing fields, and quickly established itself as an integral component of any biological research activity. It is getting popular due to its ability to analyse huge amount of biological data quickly and cost-effectively. Bioinformatics can assist a biologist to extract valuable information from biological data providing various web- and/or computer-based tools, the majority of which are freely available. The present review gives a comprehensive summary of some of these tools available to a life scientist to analyse biological data. Exclusively this review will focus on those areas of biological research, which can be greatly assisted by such tools like analysing a DNA and protein sequence to identify various features, prediction of 3D structure of protein molecules, to study molecular interactions, and to perform simulations to mimic a biological phenomenon to extract useful information from the biological data.