Bioinformatics

Simply put, bioinformatics is the study of biology using computers. Computational biology, clinical informatics, and even systems biology all share a similarly in this definition, with nuanced differences defined by the communities of practice using the term(s). Often these terms are used synonymously, and sometimes they are used with great precision within communities of practice. For these reasons, it is necessary to levelset on a definition.

There are over 3 billion base pairs (molecular pieces of information) in the human genome, and on average, 3 million, differences between two individual humans. These differences are transcribed into RNA, which are further sliced and diced before being translated into proteins which drive cellular processes through enzymatic interactions and cell-cell signaling. All these differences and complex processes must be unravelled in order to better understand biological organisms and also to improve human healthcare.