Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1. The Central Dogma
Human Insulin, PDB entry 1AIO. Image produced with PDB Structure Explorer, which
is based on MolScript and Raster 3D.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.
—
Isaac Newton
To many pre-genomic biologists, computational bioinformatics seems like an oxymoron. After all,
consider that the traditional biology curriculum of only a few years ago was heavily weighted toward
the qualitative humanities, while advanced numerical methods, programming, and computerized
visualization techniques were the purview of engineers and physicists. In a strict sense,
bioinformatics—the study of how information is represented and transmitted in biological systems,
starting at the molecular level—is a discipline that does not need a computer. An ink pen and a
supply of traditional laboratory notebooks could be used to record results of experiments. However,
to do so would be like foregoing the use of a computer and word-processing program in favor of pen
and paper to write a novel.
