Computational Biology

Abstract

Any parent who has taken young children on a car trip will understand the question in the title and its implied impatience with the duration of the journey. The same question can be put to the research community’s journey toward understanding the genetic basis of complex disease. Recently developed genomic technologies, such as oligonucleotide microarrays and achievements including whole genome sequencing, have suggested that scientists can now analyze complex genetic diseases at a much more rapid pace. The analytic speed is further increased by the large amount of genetic and genomic information that is available in public databases, which enables several analytic steps to be computationally performed. However, it is clear that we have not yet arrived at our desired destination, that of knowing the genetic basis for complex disease susceptibility (). Therefore, it is an appropriate time to ask if complex disease research is moving in the right direction and if it is using the best road map and the appropriate type of transportation.