Bioinformatics—an introduction for computer scientists

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Bioinformatics—an introduction for computer scientists

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ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) archive
Volume 36 , Issue 2 (June 2004) table of contents

Pages: 122 - 158

Year of Publication: 2004

ISSN:0360-0300

Author

Jacques Cohen

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

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ABSTRACT

The article aims to introduce computer scientists to the new field of bioinformatics. This area has arisen from the needs of biologists to utilize and help interpret the vast amounts of data that are constantly being gathered in genomic research---and its more recent counterparts, proteomics and functional genomics. The ultimate goal of bioinformatics is to develop in silico models that will complement in vitro and in vivo biological experiments. The article provides a bird's eye view of the basic concepts in molecular cell biology, outlines the nature of the existing data, and describes the kind of computer algorithms and techniques that are necessary to understand cell behavior. The underlying motivation for many of the bioinformatics approaches is the evolution of organisms and the complexity of working with incomplete and noisy data. The topics covered include: descriptions of the current software especially developed for biologists, computer and mathematical cell models, and areas of computer science that play an important role in bioinformatics.

REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

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