Bioinformatics, a combination of information technology (IT) and biological sciences, is being recognised as a potential money-spinner, by both the pharmaceuticals and pure IT companies
A recent analysis by Technical Insights, a business unit of Frost and Sullivan, presents the three fields that will be most affected by advances in bioinformatics: genomics, proteomics, and combinatorial chemistry for structure-based drug design.
It also profiles representative key companies and provides highlights of ongoing research.
Bioinformatics tools and technologies have become essential, considering the voluminous quantities of researched data.
One of the biggest challenges for developers is devising the best possible method to organise, analyse, store, and manipulate data.
"With the massive quantities of data now available to researchers, computers have become essential," says Technical Insights analyst Katherine Austin.
"However, having the data in the computer does not mean that it can be used in any meaningful way.
The challenge for bioinformatics developers is to design platforms that can manage, retrieve, organise, compare, manipulate, and integrate data in an way that accelerates research, rather than acting as a bottleneck." Bioinformatics can raise hundreds of targets such as human enzymes, receptors, and ion channels.
If two or three targets result in marketable drugs, it would be a profitable investment for pharmaceutical companies.
A significant application of bioinformatics is in silico discovery, which is the collection of data to substantiate targets and heighten the chances of drug leads.
This technology sorts and organises data to enable scientists to identify and characterise potential drug targets, disease susceptibilities, drug toxicity and efficacy, as well as individual responses to medication.
According to Austin: "It has the potential, within three to five years, to hugely decrease the risk, cost, and expertise required for the early stages of drug development - target selection and validation." Success in the bioinformatics market depends on the facilitation of integration and interoperability among software vendors, database providers, computer hardware, and in-house compilations.
Developers need to focus on designing advanced integrated systems, algorithms, annotation protocols, and user interfaces to aid the interpretation of data.
Many companies are currently addressing the integration issue. Standardisation of technologies is yet another critical issue. This would help develop a 'killer app' - a software suite that will offer researchers the best selection of tools such that they can work with any database and post any information regardless of format or type.
"For the field to really progress, different systems developed by different companies must be equally accessible to the most crucial component of computational biology: the researcher," adds Austin.
Researchers need tools that provide an almost instant analysis of data, which will allow them to interpret results. This may either mean the collaboration of a number of independent applications into one useful standardised interface, or designing a single package that provides cross-database search and analysis functionality.
Report Code: D478
