Bioinformátics

Bioinformatics, defined as the application of computer technology to the management and analysis of biological data, is a branch of science that allows us to analyze large amounts of information through automated processes. These computer analysis can generate and evaluate hypotheses of biological importance.

For example, the use of bioinformatics has allowed us to know the genome of zompopas, and discover a set of genes that ants have lost throughout their evolution, as performed nutritional functions that are covered by the fungus cultivated by these insects.This is an example of why bioinformatics has become a very important scientific field.

 The exponential development that has occurred in sequencing technologies has allowed to get a lot of information from various biological systems at very low cost (Figure 1).

This has led to progress in the knowledge of various fields, because a greater amount of information available, it is easier analysis and computational comparisons mediated processes.

Figure 1. Costs sequencing from July 2001 until January 2011.Can be seen as the decrease of these is greater than Moore's law, showing that sequencing technologies are advancing faster than the number of transistors that can be put, without increasing the cost, in an integrated circuit. Another advantage of bioinformatics and computational biology is that access to information is mostly free, requiring lower initial investments necessary to establish a traditional research laboratory. That is why this field is shaping up as an interesting option that should be explored in our country, in order to take advantage of the natural capital and human capital we have and be a world reference in this new area of science.