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Introduction to Bioinformatics · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY 4.0, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

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      This page outlines the LibreTexts Project, a non-profit platform offering free, customizable educational resources to promote collaboration among students, educators, and scholars. Its mission includes enhancing accessibility and lowering educational costs. Users can adapt materials, and instructors can create tailored content. Supported by educational entities, LibreTexts also advocates for innovative learning technologies and aligns with open education initiatives.
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    • TitlePage
    • InfoPage
      This page outlines the LibreTexts Project, a non-profit platform offering free, customizable educational resources to promote collaboration among students, educators, and scholars. Its mission includes enhancing accessibility and lowering educational costs. Users can adapt materials, and instructors can create tailored content. Supported by educational entities, LibreTexts also advocates for innovative learning technologies and aligns with open education initiatives.
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    • Licensing

    What is bioinformatics?

    Bioinformatics is the study of biological information. What does that mean? It means a lot of things! Basically, any time we have biological data that conveys some sort of information about the biological system, we can use a bioinformatics method to learn about the system. One big example of this kind off data is sequence data: DNA sequences, RNA sequences, amino acid sequences (for proteins). These sequences carry biological information (they literally encode stuff) and we can analyze these sequences to get that infromation and use it to understand what's going on. This textbook will focus on the analysis of biological sequences. There are other branches of bioinformatics (most of which focus on structural biology) which we will not discuss here.

    How this textbook is organized

    This textbook starts with what you do when you have a biological sequence, then goes through the process of acquiring and analyzing that sequence in the direction of most information transfer in biological systems: from DNA to RNA to proteins. Some chapters have a lab activity using the programming language R. The book assumes a basic knowledge of R. One potential resource for learning R is this online course by Prof. Alex Douglas at the University of Aberdeen.