The term bioinformatics was first defined by Paulien Hogewen and her college Ben Hesper in 1970 as the study of informatics processes in biotic systems. In recent years, bioinformatics is considered as an interdisciplinary field involving a combination of biology, computer science, mathematics and even statistics. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new tool of computer science that is becoming more popular among scientists. Since AI incoporates deep machine learning (ML), scientists understand the importance of using AI in reading and analyzing large datasets for prediction and pattern identifying purposes in the research field.

Classifying proteins

Proteins are the basic building blocks of life- they are responsible for all the biological processes of a cell. There are different types of proteins and they are grouped according to their biological functions. As many proteins have extremely similar primary structures and a common origin of evolution, it is tasking to classify proteins. This issue can be combated by using AI and its computational ability. There are many methods to classify proteins using AI, but a common method is to produce a computer program that is able to compare amino acid sequences to the known sequences of proteins from large databases, using this information to classify the target protein.

Analyzing and classifying proteins accurately are of the utmost importance as proteins are responsible for many key functions in an organism.

Scientists can further use this technology to predict protein function by comparing the amino acid sequence and the specific sequence of amino acids that codes for a gene.

Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD)

CADD is a specialized field of research using computational methods to simulate how drugs react with harmful cells. This is especially useful in drug discovery techniques when scientists attempt to find the best possible chemical compound for a cure (for for example, cancer cells). This technology relies heavily on information available from databases and computational resources. AI is able to manage these tasks efficiently, saving the time and energy of many scientists.

As shown above, there are many different applications of AI in the field of bioinformatics. With increasing technologies, scientists will be more able to integrate AI into more aspects of bioinformatics, which will especially benefit scientists in the research field.

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Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Bioinformatics - AI Daily