Welcome to Bioinformatics Base

What is Bioinformatics and Computational Biology?

The focus of Bioinformatics Base is to communicate research in the field of bioinformatics. Over the last several decades, technology has revolutionised almost every aspect of our lives. This is most certainly true of scientific research, where the development of highly sophisticated technologies has resulted in vast amounts of data that were unimaginable to previous generations. In biological research, for example, sequencing the first human genome took over a decade to complete and cost billions of USD. In 2022, however, it takes merely a few weeks and costs less than 1,000 USD to sequence a human genome. As a result, we now live in an era where the difficulties often lie in making sense of large amounts of data, rather than the lack of data. This realisation was a major factor that influenced my decision to pursue a career in bioinformatics. 

It is also a major factor in why I have decided to start this site (as well as a substack which mirrors these posts) and a YouTube channel, as the vast amounts of information now available can often make it more difficult to find the information that is most important. This is particularly true if you are just beginning to enter a field as the sheer volume of information can often lead to feeling overwhelmed. Crucially, despite this vast amount of information, it has been my experience that guides/tutorials for coding, tools, databases, and analytical pipelines in the biological sciences either have an assumed level of knowledge or don’t exist at all. Both of these situations prove to be very difficult for beginners in bioinformatics and computational biology. I hope to help combat this by providing clear and concise explanations for commonly used systems and analyses as well as providing links to the resources I have found the most useful. I also hope to provide insights into what it is like to be a bioinformatician on a daily basis.