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One of the most compelling reflections of the success of the bioinformatics
paradigm is the diverse and often surprising ways people have found to use
available sequence data - beyond the search for similarities that suggest
functional similarities. As an incomplete list, this includes the comparison
of available sequence data to find genes in newly sequenced data;
to compare genome organization in different species; in molecular
epidemiology to trace the progression of a disease; to build phylogenetic
histories; to compare those phylogenies to establish symbiotic relationships
between different organisms; to quickly identify different micro-organisms
without culturing; to diagnose and set the prognosis of certain diseases
(cancer for example); for genetic screening and to quickly detect polymorphisms
without sequencing individual organisms. Most important, sequence-oriented
bioinformatics and genomics, particularly the correlation of sequence data with
molecular function, or structure data, or phenotypic data has established the
base for functional genomics, pharacogenomics, proteomics, and proposals
for a Human Phenome Project. A huge and growing commercial industry has grown
from that base.
Dan Gusfield
1999-02-19