Industrial Biotechnology

Bioinformatics, Systems Biology and Computational Biomedicine

Bioinformatics has become an important part of many areas of biology. In experimental molecular biology, bioinformatics techniques such as image and signal processing allow extraction of useful results from large amounts of raw data. In the field of genetics and genomics, it aids in sequencing and annotating genomes and their observed mutations. It plays a role in the text mining of biological literature and the development of biological and gene ontologies to organize and query biological data. It also plays a role in the analysis of gene and protein expression and regulation. Bioinformatics tools aid in the comparison of genetic and genomic data and more generally in the understanding of evolutionary aspects of molecular biology.

Systems biology is the computational and mathematical modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological systems, using a holistic approach (holism instead of the more traditional reductionism) to biological research.

In order to improve the diagnosis, prediction, and treatment of complex medical diseases a process is developed known as computational biomedicine. Computational biomedicine is the name given to the use of computer-based tools and approaches to simulate and model the human body in health and disease. In the European Union, this new science has become synonymous with the concept of the virtual physiological human (VPH). More specifically, however, the name VPH is given to an ambitious initiative, funded through Framework Seven but building on work funded through earlier frameworks and external initiatives