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Encyclopedia of Big Data pp 1–4Cite as

Bioinformatics

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Background

Bioinformatics constitute a specialty in the informatics domain that applies information technologies (IT) to the study of human biology. Having its basis in the study of genotypes and phenotypes, the bioinformatics domain is extensive, encompassing genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and metabolomics. With advances in IT-supported data storage and management, very large data sets (Big Data) have become available from diverse sources at greatly accelerated rates, providing unprecedented opportunities to engage in increasingly more sophisticated biological data analytics.

Although the formal study of biology has its origins in the seventeenth century CE, the application of computer science to biological research is relatively recent. In 1953, the Watson and Crick published the DNA structure. In 1975, Sanger and the team of Maxam and Gilbert independently developed DNA sequences. In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that patents on genetically modified...

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Further Readings

  • Butte, A. (2008). Translational bioinformatics: Coming of age. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 15(6), 709–714.

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  • Cohen, I. G., Amarasingham, R., Shah, A., Xie, B., & Lo, B. (2014). The legal and ethical concerns that arise from using complex predictive analytics in health care. Health Affairs, 33(7), 1139–1147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumari, D., & Kumari, R. (2014). Impact of biological big data in bioinformatics. International Journal of Computer Applications, 10(11), 22–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maojo, V., & Kulikowski, C. A. (2003). Bioinformatics and medical informatics: Collaborations on the road to genomic medicine? Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association., 10(6), 515–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohno-Machado, L. (2012). Big science, big data, and the big role for biomedical informatics. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19(e1), e1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah, N. H., & Tenebaum, J. D. (2012). The coming of age of data-driven medicine: Translational bioinformatics’ next frontier. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19, e1–e2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. George Mason University, Arlington, VA, USA

    Erik W. Kuiler

Authors
  1. Erik W. Kuiler
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Laurie A. Schintler

  2. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Connie L. McNeely

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Kuiler, E.W. (2018). Bioinformatics. In: Schintler, L., McNeely, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Big Data. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_24-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_24-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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