Bioinformatics: The foundation of present and future biotechnology

Bioinformatics is the science of data management system in genomics and proteomics of life forms. It is a comparatively young discipline in information technology and has progressed very fast in the last few years. Bioinformatics is practised worldwide by biotechnologists to access various databases for research and to exchange information for comparison, confirmation, storage and analysis. As on date, there are a number of databases on specific genes and proteins pertaining to human, animals, plants, bacteria, and other life forms. These are being enriched and updated through research in modern biology with the practice of bioinformatics. These databases help in new inventions in biotechnology that are useful to mankind. Bioinformatics is enabling life sciences to invent novel drug discovery as well as drug delivery systems for greater progress in the field of biotechnology. Such inventions attain importance in the present scenario of patents and WTO regime. For the future development of biotechnology, bioinformatics will have to play a vital role with the involvement of internet tools and the World Wide Web (WWW). The future rDNA research would be guided largely by the databases available in generic or specific forms. Thus bioinformatics and biotechnology have to move hand in hand for their progress. However, bioinformatics can now be branded as a bonafide discipline within information technology.