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Bioinformatics — Mining the genome for information

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Frontiers of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in China

Abstract

Since the launching of the human genome sequencing project in the 1990s, genomic research has already achieved definite results. At the beginning of the present century, the complete genomes of several model organisms have already been sequenced, including a number of prokaryote microorganisms and the eukaryotes yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), nematode (C. elegans), fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) as well as the major part of the human genome. These achievements signified that a new era of data mining and analysis on the human genome had commenced. The language of human genetics would gradually be read and understood, and the genetic information underlying metabolism, development, differentiation and evolution would progressively become known to mankind. Large amounts of data are already accumulating, but at present many of the rules that should guide the understanding of this information are yet unknown. Bioinformatics research is thus not only becoming more important, but is also faced with severe challenges as well as great opportunities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Runsheng Chen & Geir Skogerbø

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  1. Runsheng Chen
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  2. Geir Skogerbø
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Correspondence to Runsheng Chen.

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Professor Runsheng Chen is now Professor in Systems Biology Research Center and National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of Human Genome Organization (HUGO), and a member of the biomacromolecule group of The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). From 1992 to 1996 he was member of the Biophysics Professional Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and was ever the General-Secretary and Vice President of Chinese Society of Biophysics. He graduated in 1964 from the Department of Biophysics of the University of Science and Technology of China. From 1985 to 1987 he studied the electronic structure of biomacromolecules at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. After that he has been engaged in research cooperation with The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Osaka University, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard University. In October 1996, Prof. Chen was invited to give a lecture called “From DNA sequence database to protein three-dimensional structure” at the 15th International CODATA Conference, and won the “Kotani Prize”. In 2007, he was elected as Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Professor Chen was awarded “Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize” in 2008.

Prof. Chen has occupied with studies in bioinformatics over a number of years. He was the first in China to accomplish the assembly and gene annotation of a complete bacterial genome. He has further established statistical DNA sequence analysis, fractal dimension analysis, and work on neural networks, complexity, local area degeneracy factor analysis, cryptology and other methodologies. Among these, Prof. Chen set up cryptology studies in China for the first time. He also took part in the sequencing of 1% of the human genome and computer analysis of the rice genome draft. For 20 years, Prof. Chen has taken a systematic study in the field of bioinformatics, and published more than 120 SCI papers; besides, he was invited to give a report at international academic conference many times.

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Chen, R., Skogerbø, G. Bioinformatics — Mining the genome for information. Front. Electr. Electron. Eng. China 5, 391–404 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11460-010-0109-8

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