{"id":161786,"date":"2024-04-24T16:49:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T22:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=161786"},"modified":"2024-12-09T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T19:26:50","slug":"bioinformatics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/biotechnology\/bioinformatics\/","title":{"rendered":"Bioinformatics: Data Analysis At The Service Of Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bioinformatics relies on programming and data science to conduct in-depth studies of the biology of species. It has many applications, from understanding the behavior of diseases like tumors<\/strong> to creating artificial neural networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to <\/strong>Silvia Hinojosa<\/strong>,<\/a> a bioinformatics specialist at Tec de Monterrey\u2019s Genomics Core Lab,<\/a> the discipline seeks to combine biology with programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about finding solutions to biological problems using huge databases and software to analyze this information”, she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hinojosa, for instance, focuses mainly on species conservation using genomics techniques that allow her to locate and record which specimens exist in certain habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a project for monitoring species using their DNA. We can take a soil sample and then extract the DNA of all the species that have passed through it at that time<\/strong>\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be very complicated to keep a record of the animals<\/a> without the help of bioinformatics because you would have to wait for them to appear in front of you or a camera previously set up. This method can be used to track the behavior of the jaguars that inhabit Nuevo Le\u00f3n.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another project studied by Core Lab Genomics is to understand why some pituitary tumors disappear and others reappear more aggressively than the previous one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bioinformatics has also contributed to the creation of artificial neural networks<\/strong>, a field widely used in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe brain is composed of neurons: that\u2019s the biological system. And we apply this model to computers: artificial neural networks are a simulation of how we can reason <\/strong>and create intelligence\u201d, explains V\u00edctor Sosa<\/a>, an expert from the Tec\u2019s Applied Artificial Intelligence<\/a> group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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