The Systems of Bioinformatics
Fields of Study
Sequence Analysis
"Being the most popular area of Bioinformatics, Sequence Analysis is a process where "information is analyzed to determine genes that encode polypeptides (proteins), RNA genes, regulatory sequences, structural motifs, and repetitive sequences" (1). Sequencing can be done in two ways, by hand and on paper, or digitally and on a computer. Computers play a major role in all of Bioinformatics, and is really the only thing that you need to conduct your research into whatever molecule you want to learn more about.
Gene and Protein Expression
"The expression of many genes can be determined by measuring mRNA levels with multiple techniques including microarrays, expressed cDNA sequence tag (EST) sequencing, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) tag sequencing, massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS), RNA-Seq, also known as "Whole Transcriptome Shotgun Sequencing" (WTSS), or various applications of multiplexed in-situ hybridization" (1). The image to the right shows heat mapping of a specific protein, which can be used to group identical or similar molecules.
Structural Bioinformatics
"Structural bioinformatics is the branch of bioinformatics which is related to the analysis and prediction of the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules such as proteins, RNA, and DNA. It deals with generalizations about macromolecular 3D structure such as comparisons of overall folds and local motifs, principles of molecular folding, evolution, and binding interactions, and structure/function relationships, working both from experimentally solved structures and from computational models (1). This part of Bioinformatical research plays a key role in helping a scientist interpret analytics visually.