Bioinformatic Methods and Resources for Neuroscience Research

Abstract

Students majoring in life sciences are seldom exposed to the use of bioinformatic tools in their regular coursework. Exponential growth of data in the biomedical research disciplines, including neuroscience, warrants the need for training undergraduate and graduate students in the use of bioinformatic and neuroinformatic tools. Two main objectives of this chapter are to provide an overview of important bioinformatic and neuroinformatic resources and to explain the usage of the commonly used bioinformatic data analysis tools. For each major tool, the theory behind the methodology is briefly described to enable the user to understand how the program works. The bioinformatic resources described in this article refer to the most commonly used tools and databases for sequence homology search, multiple sequence alignment, protein domain analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, pathway analysis, and interaction network analysis. In addition to the general-purpose tools and databases, a list of neuroinformatic specific resources is provided.