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Macromolecules, Genomes and Ourselves

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Book cover Computation in Cells and Tissues

Part of the book series: Natural Computing Series ((NCS))

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Abstract

‘Bioinformatics’ is used to describe computational topics in molecular and cellular biology. As a discipline it involves cross-fertilisation of ideas between computer science and modern biology. DNA, RNA and protein are classes of macromolecule whose members play several roles including inheritance, biological information processing, signal transduction and catalysis. Methods of classifying these molecules are central to current methods for elucidating relationships between sequence, structure and function. We take as a case study metaphors for the function of proteins and point to a unified view of proteins as computational devices capable of matching patterns as inputs and processing to result in alternative outputs. Finally we consider the requirement for a systems view of life in order to construct new models for the era of post-genomic biomedicine. The subject has an ethical dimension and we consider the case that such models are metaphoric constructions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    S. B. Nagl

  2. School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    J. H. Parish

  3. Department of Computer Science, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

    R. C. Paton

  4. Colworth House, Sharnbrook, Unilever Research Colworth, Bedford, MK44 1LQ, UK

    G. J. Warner

Authors
  1. S. B. Nagl
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  2. J. H. Parish
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  3. R. C. Paton
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  4. G. J. Warner
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, 98103, WA, USA

    Hamid Bolouri

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, S1 4DP, Sheffield, UK

    Mike Holcombe

  3. School of Biochemestry and Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    J. Howard Parish

  4. Future Technologies Group, Intelligent Systems Lab, BTexact Technologies, Ipswich, IP5 3RE, UK

    Richard Tateson

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Nagl, S.B., Parish, J.H., Paton, R.C., Warner, G.J. (2004). Macromolecules, Genomes and Ourselves. In: Paton, R., Bolouri, H., Holcombe, M., Parish, J.H., Tateson, R. (eds) Computation in Cells and Tissues. Natural Computing Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06369-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06369-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-05569-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-06369-9

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