BOL: Related items

What is Data Science? — A Bioinformatics Perspective

Abhi — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 01:44:34 -0500

In today’s era of big biology, we’re generating more data than ever before—genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, metabolomes, microbiomes… you name it. But raw biological data doesn’t speak for itself. Making sense of it requires more than traditional biology. This is where data science steps in.

So, What Is Data Science?
At its core, data science is the interdisciplinary field that extracts knowledge and insights from data using programming, statistics, and domain expertise. In bioinformatics, data science enables us to turn gigabytes of sequence data into biological meaning.

Imagine trying to understand gene regulation in cancer by analyzing thousands of RNA-seq samples, or predicting antibiotic resistance from bacterial genomes—these challenges are not solvable through wet lab experiments alone. They require data-driven thinking.

Data Science Meets Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is inherently a data science domain. From genomics to systems biology, every field in modern biology relies on data science techniques to:

Clean and process massive datasets

Discover patterns in high-dimensional data

Build predictive models (e.g., for disease classification)

Visualize complex biological networks and trends

Integrate diverse data types (e.g., transcriptomic + epigenomic data)

The Bioinformatics Toolkit
Here’s what data science typically looks like in bioinformatics:

Task Data Science Role
Sequence alignment Efficient algorithms, indexing, parallel processing
Gene expression analysis Statistical modeling (e.g., DESeq2, limma)
Variant calling Data filtering, probabilistic models
Clustering of cells in single-cell data Unsupervised learning
Protein structure prediction Deep learning models (e.g., AlphaFold)
Metagenomics Data integration, classification, dimensionality reduction

Common tools include Python, R, Bioconductor, scikit-learn, Pandas, Seurat, and TensorFlow—often working together in reproducible workflows.

It's Not Just About Coding
A common misconception is that bioinformatics is just programming or scripting. But being a data scientist in bioinformatics also means:

Understanding experimental design

Asking biologically meaningful questions

Choosing the right statistical or machine learning models

Communicating findings effectively (e.g., plots, dashboards, papers)

In other words, data science in bioinformatics is where biology, statistics, and computer science converge.

Why It Matters
The real power of data science in bioinformatics is its ability to scale discovery.

Instead of studying one gene, we can study thousands.

Instead of analyzing one species, we can explore entire ecosystems.

Instead of waiting months for lab results, we can generate hypotheses in days.

From personalized medicine and cancer diagnostics to agricultural genomics and pandemic surveillance, data science is at the heart of the bioinformatics revolution.

Final Thoughts
If you’re a biologist who’s curious about code, or a data enthusiast fascinated by life sciences, bioinformatics is your playground—and data science is your toolkit.

In bioinformatics, data science isn’t just useful. It’s essential.

GMcloser: closing gaps in assemblies accurately with a likelihood-based selection of contig or long-read alignments

Shruti Paniwala — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 05:43:44 -0500

GMcloser uses likelihood-based classifiers calculated from the alignment statistics between scaffolds, contigs and paired-end reads to correctly assign contigs or long reads to gap regions of scaffolds, thereby achieving accurate and efficient gap closure. We demonstrate with sequencing data from various organisms that the gap-closing accuracy of GMcloser is 3–100-fold higher than those of other available tools, with similar efficiency. https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/31/23/3733/209212

Address of the bookmark: https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/31/23/3733/209212

CLAW: Chloroplast Long-read Assembly Workflow

LEGE — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:37:46 -0600

CLAW (Chloroplast Long-read Assembly Workflow) is an mostly-automated Snakemake-based workflow for the assembly of chloroplast genomes. CLAW uses chloroplast long-reads, which are baited out of larger read libraries (e.g., an Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION read library derived from photosynthetic tissue), for assembly with Flye and/or Unicycler. CLAW was designed with the novice bioinformatician in mind - it is easy to install and easy to use, requiring only minimal user input.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/aaronphillips7493/CLAW

Sequencing Solutions to World Health

Rahul Agarwal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:05:35 -0500

"New technology that quickly, easily and economically reveals the genomes of viruses and pathogens transforms public health and medicine."

Source: Life technologies

Address of the bookmark: http://www.lifetechnologies.com/global/en/home/communities-social/blog/blogs/sequencing-solutions-to-world-health.html?cid=social_blogseries_20130829_11098264

Genome Browsers

Rahul Agarwal — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 19:04:47 -0500

Genome Browser is the platform/database used for searching and retreiving sequences and annotation of genomes belong to various eukaryotes, prokaryotes, etc.

Following are the weblink for different available browsers:

http://www.ensembl.org/index.html

http://ensemblgenomes.org/

http://genome.ucsc.edu/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/genomes/

http://flybase.org/

http://cmr.jcvi.org/tigr-scripts/CMR/CmrHomePage.cgi

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/databases/

Two major breakthrough!!

Rahul Agarwal — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 10:18:11 -0500

"Scientists in Uruguay in colloboration with European partners sequenced the genome of the high-value Tannat grape, from which "the most healthy of red wines" are fermented.

A quick, $1 syphilis test in development by researchers from UNU-BIOLAC."

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130902101846.htm

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/tca-ssg082613.php

Encode sequencing data freely available to download and use for academic means

Rahul Agarwal — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 18:18:08 -0500

In Encode, regulatory elements investigated via DNA hypersensitivity assays, assays of DNA methylation, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) of proteins that interact with DNA, including modified histones and transcription factors, followed by sequencing (ChIP-Seq).

More information:

https://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE/pilot.html

Address of the bookmark: https://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE/

Tsetse Fly Genome sequenced

Rahul Agarwal — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 10:48:35 -0500

As it reported online today in Science, the team used several sequencing approaches to tackle the tsetse fly's 366 million base genome.

The current study, and companion articles slated to appear in PLOS One, PLOS Genetics, and PLOS Neglected Tropic Diseases, are the result of nearly 150 researchers based in 18 countries.

Source:

http://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/international-team-sequences-tsetse-fly-genome

Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab)-Sweden

Sat, 10 May 2014 06:22:30 -0500

Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) is a national center for molecular biosciences with focus on health and environmental research. The center combines frontline technical expertise with advanced knowledge of translational medicine and molecular bioscience. SciLifeLab is a national resource and a collaboration between four universities: Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University and Uppsala University.

Webpage : https://www.scilifelab.se/about-us/
Opportunity: https://www.scilifelab.se/about-us/career/

miRNA database and tools

Rahul Agarwal — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 07:58:40 -0500

Since few years miRNA has shown to play important role in therapeutic related research and also known to play vital role in controlling gene expression specifically at transcriptional and post-transcription levels. Here are some important DBs and tools related with miRNA:

miRNA Sequencing data analysis : http://tools.genxpro.net/omiras/

miRNApath( R based tool) : http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/miRNApath.html

miRWalk DB : http://www.umm.uni-heidelberg.de/apps/zmf/mirwalk/

TargetScanHuman : http://www.targetscan.org/

RNAhybrid : http://bibiserv.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/rnahybrid/welcome.html

RNA22 predictor : http://cbcsrv.watson.ibm.com/rna22.html

miRNA predictor : http://www.microrna.org/microrna/home.do

Plant miRNA DB :http://bioinformatics.cau.edu.cn/PMRD/

miRBASE DB: http://www.mirbase.org/

Plant RNA predictor : http://plantgrn.noble.org/psRNATarget/

miRNA Interaction DB : http://starbase.sysu.edu.cn/

Sequencing based miRNA DB : http://mirgator.kobic.re.kr/

predicted A-to-I edited miRNA DB : http://microrna.osumc.edu/mireditar/

Animal, plant and virus miRNA DB : http://lemur.amu.edu.pl/share/php/mirnest/

Atlantic Salmon miRNAs DB : http://www.molgenv.com/ssa_mirnas_db_home.php

miRNA prediction on UTRs : http://genie.weizmann.ac.il/pubs/mir07/mir07_prediction.html

Idea of analysing miRNA Sequencing data :

http://www.illumina.com/applications/epigenetics/small_rna_analysis.ilmn

More:

http://www.bioconductor.org/help/search/index.html?q=miRNA+target