Ebola outbreak: Mathematicians play a vital role in the quest to develop a vaccination

Images of medical workers clad in protective gear have become synonymous with the global fight against Ebola, but a long way from the frontline, mathematicians are unlocking the secrets of what makes the virus tick.

Throughout this week researchers have gathered in Melbourne to share what they know about the field of bioinformatics.

"Bioinformatics brings together mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists and biologists to address some of the big problems in the life sciences," Dr Jonathan Keith from Monash University said.

Dr Keith, a statistician, said if you considered the eradication of Ebola to be a battle, bioinformatics provided the back up for the foot soldiers on the ground.

"You've got the frontline people, but you've got whole layers of people behind them, it is an amazing thing, the way society organises things," he said.

"I think they're incredibly brave to be going into the battle zone - I guess we're back room support."

They have been providing that support, by examining the virus up close, taking small sequences of DNA molecules and working out how they fit together, using mathematics.

"When a long DNA molecule is sequenced, only small parts are sequenced at a time, and these need to be assembled into a much longer sequence, the entire genome," Dr Keith said.

"It's like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, where you have a few pieces missing, some pieces duplicated, lots of overlapping pieces.

"Developing algorithms to accurately assemble those pieces together is known as assembly."

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Ebola outbreak: Mathematicians play a vital role in the quest to develop a vaccination