Rise and Demise of Bioinformatics? Promise and Progress

The field of bioinformatics and computational biology has gone through a number of transformations during the past 15 years, establishing itself as a key component of new biology. This spectacular growth has been challenged by a number of disruptive changes in science and technology. Despite the apparent fatigue of the linguistic use of the term itself, bioinformatics has grown perhaps to a point beyond recognition. We explore both historical aspects and future trends and argue that as the field expands, key questions remain unanswered and acquire new meaning while at the same time the range of applications is widening to cover an ever increasing number of biological disciplines. These trends appear to be pointing to a redefinition of certain objectives, milestones, and possibly the field itself

Establishment of computational biology in Greece and Cyprus: Past, present, and future.

We review the establishment of computational biology in Greece and Cyprus from its inception to date and issue recommendations for future development. We compare output to other countries of similar geography, economy, and size—based on publication counts recorded in the literature—and predict future growth based on those counts as well as national priority areas. Our analysis may be pertinent to wider national or regional communities with challenges and opportunities emerging from the rapid expansion of the field and related industries. Our recommendations suggest a 2-fold growth margin for the 2 countries, as a realistic expectation for further expansion of the field and the development of a credible roadmap of national priorities, both in terms of research and infrastructure funding

Bioinformàtica: una eina essencial per als biòlegs del segle XXI

La bioinformàtica i la biologia computacional són dues cares d'una mateixa disciplina, que fa ús de tècniques i algoritmes informàtics per estudiar processos biològics. Ambdós termes tenen, però, matisos diferents. Històricament, el terme de biologia computacional s'ha emprat més en ambients de simulació computacional en què la física i les matemàtiques tenen un paper molt rellevant, mentre que el terme de bioinformàtica s'ha usat més en l'estudi de grans quantitats de dades en què l'estadística és essencial. Assignem el terme que assignem, l'augment de les dades òmiques juntament amb una comprensió més acurada dels processos estudiats, ha fet que la bioinformàtica resulti imprescindible en el currículum del biòleg. Com a conseqüència, en aquest segle que tot just estrenem, no tots els biòlegs hauran de ser bioinformàtics, però sí que hauran de saber fer servir la bioinformàtica.Bioinformatics and computational biology are parallel terms that refer to the application of computational science to the study of biological processes. However, these two terms have certain historical connotations. Computational biology has referred more specifically to a scientific approach to simulating biology in which physics and mathematics play an important role. Bioinformatics is often used to designate a discipline in which computational software allows the vast amounts of data now produced by biologists to be processed. Regardless of which term is used, the increase of biological data and the more accurate insights into the theory behind biological processes make bioinformatics essential for any biologists of the 21st century. Consequently, today not all biologists need to be bioinformaticians but they certainly all need to be proficient in bioinformatics

Analyzing gender disparities in STEAM: A Case Study from Bioinformatics Workshops in the University of Granada

La bioinformática es un área interdisciplinaria que ha despertado un gran interés tanto para el mundo académico como para las corporaciones en los últimos años. Esta área creciente combina conocimientos y habilidades de las áreas de biología y ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería, artes y matemáticas (STEM). Una de las ventajas de la sinergia entre estas dos áreas de trabajo es que ofrece una oportunidad para cerrar la brecha de género de STEM tradicional. A pesar de esta oportunidad y la importancia y amplia aplicación del campo de la bioinformática, este tema aún no ha ganado suficiente visibilidad en los programas de posgrado para los títulos de bachillerato en la Universidad de Granada. Esto ha motivado la organización de un "Taller educativo sobre bioinformática" anual en la Universidad de Granada por el Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial. Los resultados del análisis de las dos primeras ediciones de este taller muestran un gran interés en el tema por la comunidad universitaria en todos los niveles (por ejemplo, estudiantes de pregrado y posgrado, docentes e investigadores) sin distinción significativa entre los géneros a nivel global. Al analizar el grupo de estudiantes, las mujeres mostraron un mayor interés en el tema. Sin embargo, este interés no se reflejó en los estratos universitarios superiores (docentes e investigadores), que representan un vistazo de la situación actual general española en el área.Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary area that has raised a high interest for both academia and corporations in recent years. This rising area combines knowledge and skills from Bio and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEM) areas. One of the advantages of the synergy between these two work areas is that it offers an opportunity for closing the traditional STEM's gender gap. Despite this opportunity and the signi cance and wide application of bioinformatics eld, this topic has still not gained enough visibility in the graduate programs for the Bio Bachelor Degrees at the University of Granada. This has motivated the organization of an annual \Educational Workshop on Bioinformatics" at the University of Granada by the Department of Computer Science and Arti cial Intelligence. Results of the analysis of the rst two editions of this workshop show a great interest on the topic by the university community at all levels (e.g. undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and researchers) without signi cant distinction among genders at global level. When analyzing student group, women did show a higher interest on the subject. However, this interest was not reflected in the higher university strata (teachers and researchers), which represents a glimpse of the spanish general current situation on the area.Universidad de Granada: Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadore

GOBLET: the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training

In recent years, high-throughput technologies have brought big data to the life sciences. The march of progress has been rapid, leaving in its wake a demand for courses in data analysis, data stewardship, computing fundamentals, etc., a need that universities have not yet been able to satisfy--paradoxically, many are actually closing "niche" bioinformatics courses at a time of critical need. The impact of this is being felt across continents, as many students and early-stage researchers are being left without appropriate skills to manage, analyse, and interpret their data with confidence. This situation has galvanised a group of scientists to address the problems on an international scale. For the first time, bioinformatics educators and trainers across the globe have come together to address common needs, rising above institutional and international boundaries to cooperate in sharing bioinformatics training expertise, experience, and resources, aiming to put ad hoc training practices on a more professional footing for the benefit of all

GOBLET: The Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training

In recent years, high-throughput technologies have brought big data to the life sciences. The march of progress has been rapid, leaving in its wake a demand for courses in data analysis, data stewardship, computing fundamentals, etc., a need that universities have not yet been able to satisfy—paradoxically, many are actually closing “niche” bioinformatics courses at a time of critical need. The impact of this is being felt across continents, as many students and early-stage researchers are being left without appropriate skills to manage, analyse, and interpret their data with confidence. This situation has galvanised a group of scientists to address the problems on an international scale. For the first time, bioinformatics educators and trainers across the globe have come together to address common needs, rising above institutional and international boundaries to cooperate in sharing bioinformatics training expertise, experience, and resources, aiming to put ad hoc training practices on a more professional footing for the benefit of all

Hidden in the Middle : Culture, Value and Reward in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics - the so-called shotgun marriage between biology and computer science - is an interdiscipline. Despite interdisciplinarity being seen as a virtue, for having the capacity to solve complex problems and foster innovation, it has the potential to place projects and people in anomalous categories. For example, valorised 'outputs' in academia are often defined and rewarded by discipline. Bioinformatics, as an interdisciplinary bricolage, incorporates experts from various disciplinary cultures with their own distinct ways of working. Perceived problems of interdisciplinarity include difficulties of making explicit knowledge that is practical, theoretical, or cognitive. But successful interdisciplinary research also depends on an understanding of disciplinary cultures and value systems, often only tacitly understood by members of the communities in question. In bioinformatics, the 'parent' disciplines have different value systems; for example, what is considered worthwhile research by computer scientists can be thought of as trivial by biologists, and vice versa. This paper concentrates on the problems of reward and recognition described by scientists working in academic bioinformatics in the United Kingdom. We highlight problems that are a consequence of its cross-cultural make-up, recognising that the mismatches in knowledge in this borderland take place not just at the level of the practical, theoretical, or epistemological, but also at the cultural level too. The trend in big, interdisciplinary science is towards multiple authors on a single paper; in bioinformatics this has created hybrid or fractional scientists who find they are being positioned not just in-between established disciplines but also in-between as middle authors or, worse still, left off papers altogether

Generations of interdisciplinarity in bioinformatics

Bioinformatics, a specialism propelled into relevance by the Human Genome Project and the subsequent -omic turn in the life science, is an interdisciplinary field of research. Qualitative work on the disciplinary identities of bioinformaticians has revealed the tensions involved in work in this “borderland.” As part of our ongoing work on the emergence of bioinformatics, between 2010 and 2011, we conducted a survey of United Kingdom-based academic bioinformaticians. Building on insights drawn from our fieldwork over the past decade, we present results from this survey relevant to a discussion of disciplinary generation and stabilization. Not only is there evidence of an attitudinal divide between the different disciplinary cultures that make up bioinformatics, but there are distinctions between the forerunners, founders and the followers; as inter/disciplines mature, they face challenges that are both inter-disciplinary and inter-generational in nature

Bioinformática: tecnologías de la información al servicio de la biología y otras ciencias

El presente artículo presenta una revisión de la bioinformática, desde sus inicios y su evolución en el tiempo, las definiciones por diversos autores, las aplicaciones que tiene, los software de acceso libre para el almacenamiento y procesamiento de datos y de qué manera estos aportan a la bioinformática y a las ciencias que están inmersas en las mismas. Concluyendo que el uso de las tecnologías es una alternativa de solución para esta inmensidad de datos para campos de la biología actuales y revolucionarias como la genómica, la proteómica, la transcriptómica y la metabólomica. Palabras Clave: Bioinformática, Tecnologías, Biología, ADN, Ciencias computacionales