Bioinformatics for the genomic sciences and towards systems biology. Japanese activities in the post-genome era

Abstract

The knowledge gleaned from genome sequencing and post-genome analyses is having a very significant impact on a whole range of life sciences and their applications. ‘Genome-wide analysis’ is a good keyword to represent this tendency. Thanks to innovations in high-throughput measurement technologies and information technologies, genome-wide analysis is becoming available in a broad range of research fields from DNA sequences, gene and protein expressions, protein structures and interactions, to pathways or networks analysis. In fact, the number of research targets has increased by more than two orders in recent years and we should change drastically the attitude to research activities. The scope and speed of research activities are expanding and the field of bioinformatics is playing an important role. In parallel with the data-driven research approach that focuses on speedy handling and analyzing of the huge amount of data, a new approach is gradually gaining power. This is a ‘model-driven research’ approach, that incorporates biological modeling in its research framework. Computational simulations of biological processes play a pivotal role. By modeling and simulating, this approach aims at predicting and even designing the dynamic behaviors of complex biological systems, which is expected to make rapid progress in life science researches and lead to meaningful applications to various fields such as health care, food supply and improvement of environment. Genomic sciences are now advancing as great frontiers of research and applications in the 21st century. This article starts with surveying the general progress of bioinformatics ( Section 1), and describes Japanese activities in bioinformatics ( Section 2). In Section 3, I will introduce recent developments in Systems Biology which I think will become more important in the future.