I am interested in Bioinformatics.
Bioinformatics is the combination of Molecular Biology (genes 'n stuff) that I studied in my PhD and
Information Technology.
The biological code of life is DNA, this is made up of four
different nucleotides:
C G T A
This is translated (via mRNA) into a chain of amino acids
which are called proteins.
For example:
ATG
is coded into the amino
acid: Met
Methionine (Met) is the start codon (the amino acid that starts the chain of amino acids).
3D representation of the protein myoglobin: this protein stores and releases oxygen in muscle cells
Proteins
These are long chains of amino acids wrapped up into a certain shape to give it a function. Proteins are mostly enzymes which are little machines that do stuff in the cell and
make it work.
Why is it useful to do Bioinformatics?
If we can work out why people are different due to the different sequences of their
DNA, we have very valuable information (eg. why some people get infected by a particular strain
of the cold virus and other people don't)- that's where the IT comes into it!
References
Thankyou to Wikipedia, the source of the myoglobin figure from the page on proteins: linked here
Ella's homepage
This web page was written by Ella Zaplin
Date: 28th May 2012