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Biotechnology has spread its wings in many directions, giving rise to many interesting possibilities and career options. Bioinformatics is one such field that utilizes the power of computing for biological analysis. This article throws some light on how computers are helping to change the world of biology. Origins of Bioinformatics What happens when artificial technologies are applied to the study of any living organism, biological system or to create and change the basic essence of any process that involves a living organism? An entirely new dimension of science is born, known by the name of Biotechnology. Not at all a new concept, biotechnology has been used by the mankind for thousands of years. Makings breads, fermenting alcohol or producing cheese are some of the processes that man has been practicing for as long as time has recorded, but it was only in the late 1970s that the term, Biotechnology was coined. Bioinformatics is a sub-division of Biotechnology, which strictly deals with application of new age Information Technology tools for retrieving, collecting, storing and analysis of biological data. This field also involves the applications of information and computation theory, web technologies, software engineering, data mining and statistics. In 1978, Paullen Hogeweg introduced the term Bioinformatics that refereed to the study of information processes in biotic system. Later on, the term was redefined to include the creation of database for storage of biological data related to nucleotide and amino acid sequences. Primary Goal of Bioinformatics Bioinformatics now concentrates on analysis, interpretation and relation of the various forms of stored biological data, which can be anything ranging from protein domains, amino acid sequences to nucleotides. Computational biology is an important sub-discipline of bioinformatics. A bioinformatics engineer would be responsible for the following tasks: • Develop and implement various efficient tools that help retrieving, analyzing and management of vast amount of data • Develop various algorithms to understand and create relationships between two sets of data • Developing computationally intensive techniques that help in better understanding of biological processes. Courses and Colleges To be a Bio-informatician you must have an inherent interest in biology and computers. It is tough to be an expert in both, but you can always be good at one and have the ability to understand the other fully. Since it is a part of Biotechnology, therefore, it is imperative that all dedicated Biotechnology colleges in India have a course in Bioinformatics as well. Most of the colleges teach Bioinformatics as a part of the curriculum of their Biotechnology course, but there are others that have a special separate degree programme for the same. Some of the top government colleges that form the cream of all the institutes that offer these courses are: • School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad • Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Biotechnology, Trivandrum • Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai • GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar • School of Biotechnology, JNU • School of Biotechnology, BHU • Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, MS University of Baroda • Institute of Bioinformatics, Bangalore Other than these colleges, there are many private schools of higher academic learning that offer courses in Biotechnology or Bioinformatics such as: • Jaypee University of Information and Technology, Solan • The Oxford College of Science, Bangalore • The Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Noida Owing to its increasing popularity as a career choice, IIT Delhi is working in collaboration with NIIT to train students through a six months duration intensive course in Bioinformatics and computational biology. This training leverages the supercomputing facility available at IIT, and both engineering as well as medical graduates are eligible for applying to this course. The bioinformatics module is delivered at IIT, while the IT part of the course is imparted at NIIT centres. Furthermore, C-DAC, the premiere computer design and development institute of the country is also developing modern facility for boosting research in Bioinformatics. This is in line with the predictions that IT sector is going to pour more and more dollars in the field in coming years. Author Bio Saurabh Tyagi is an expert author, with an experience of over 4 years in writing content. He loves to write on topics related to career, education, Biotechnology colleges in Pune, real estate, Management Courses and technology.
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