Will bioinformatics revolutionise healthcare and medicine?

Bioinformatics presents exciting possibilities in areas such as disease diagnosis and control, personalised medicine, and even agriculture. So, what do healthcare professionals need to know?

In 1990, researchers around the world began the mammoth task of mapping and sequencing all the genes in the human genome.

Completed in 2003, the Human Genome Project is, to this day, the world’s largest collaborative biological project – and a famous example of bioinformatics in action.

The scale of the project was extraordinary. Researchers were able to map the 3.1 billion protein base pairs in the genes that make up the human genome – something only made possible by bioinformatics technology.

A relatively new and rapidly evolving field, bioinformatics applies the power of computing to the analysis of biological data. Today, it’s having profound impacts in areas such as disease diagnosis, pathogen outbreak control, cancer care, and even in fields outside of medicine, such as agriculture.

As a healthcare professional, it’s worth having at least a fundamental understanding of bioinformatics, how it may be changing your field, and the exciting possibilities that it presents for the future of medicine.

Let’s take a closer look at what healthcare professionals need to know about bioinformatics and how you can find out more.

What is bioinformatics?

Essentially, bioinformatics is the science of collecting and analysing a large amount of biological data. It can be considered a sub-discipline of biology and computer science and uses techniques such as data mining, pattern recognition, visualisation, and machine learning.

It’s highly interdisciplinary and specialists working in the field may include biologists and molecular life scientists as well as mathematicians and computer scientists. Those working within bioinformatics deal with the collection, analysis, storage, and dissemination of complex biological data, like genetic codes, as one example.

While the term ‘bioinformatics’ was first coined in 1970, the field went through a period of rapid growth in the 1990s, thanks largely to the Human Genome Project and advances in DNA sequencing tech at that time.

Why bioinformatics is important?

These days, bioinformatics is used in everything from helping us understand and respond to pathogen outbreaks – such as COVID-19 – to advances towards more personalised medical treatment for cancer patients.

Bioinformatics enables researchers to sift through huge amounts of data quickly – in a way that’s just not possible using manual techniques. This means researchers from different studies and countries can swiftly analyse different datasets.

This kind of speed allows for a much more rapid response to public health issues – as seen in the remarkably quick vaccine development timeline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

How is bioinformatics being used?

From further advances in genomic sequencing to more personalised treatment options, bioinformatics has a huge range of applications. Its uses go beyond healthcare too – it’s also proving valuable in areas such as agriculture and environmental science.

Here a just a few examples of bioinformatics in play today.

Cancer care

More precise and quicker treatment for cancer patients could help save many lives.

Work is underway to use advanced bioinformatics to speed up genomics testing within oncology. For example, the Advanced Genomics Collaboration (TAGC), a partnership between the University of Melbourne and Illumina, is developing systems that reduce patient data sequencing time and improve reliability.

The collaboration has already led to cancer patients in Victoria benefiting from rapid genomic testing.

Pathogen control

During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers were able to use bioinformatics to sequence the disease’s genome and develop a suitable vaccine. This was done over a remarkably swift timeline, thanks in part to the power of bioinformatics allowing for rapid international collaboration.

Personalised medicine

The potential for more precise, personalised medical treatment – in oncology or otherwise – is one of the key future frontiers of bioinformatics.

Advances in genomic sequencing can be used to better understand an individual’s biology and identify what may be causing disease. This can help more effectively match a patient to a drug or treatment – cutting out inefficiencies in diagnosis and treatment plans and driving much better outcomes for patients.

Agriculture

Understanding and sequencing non-human genomes are also crucial endeavours within the domain of bioinformatics. In agriculture, for example, bioinformatics is helping researchers develop crops that are more resilient to pests and disease outbreaks.

What are the key challenges in bioinformatics?

Working with massive datasets is inherently challenging – and also poses ethical considerations for researchers.

Data-sharing and privacy concerns need to be carefully managed and it’s key for those working within bioinformatics to understand the ethical boundaries of their practice.

What else do healthcare professionals need to know about bioinformatics?

Healthcare professionals of all stripes will benefit from gaining an understanding of bioinformatics. Whether you’re a public health physician, medical registrar, or a lab technician, it’s worth having at least a fundamental grasp of the area, and how it may apply to the work that you do.

To learn more, you may like to consider upskilling with a short bioinformatics course. For example, the University of Melbourne’s Microbial Genomics: Bioinformatic Analysis Basics micro-credential will empower you with key skills in bioinformatcis in just four weeks.

It will give you a better understanding of concepts such as genome assembly, annotation, genome characterisation, mapping variant calling, and phylogenetics. Crucially, within this course you’ll also gain practical experience sequencing DNA with genomics program, Galaxy, and learn from researchers at the esteemed Doherty Institute.

The future of bioinformatics presents exciting possibilities – both for patients and healthcare professionals – so the more insight you have into the area, the better set up you will be to embrace them.

Want to discover more about the future applications of bioinformatics? Our four-week micro-credential Microbial Genomics: Bioinformatic Analysis Basics starts on April 8.