Focus on bioinformatics tools in diabetic research

Every disease has a genesis, and bioinformatics tools can be used to understand the origin and possible cause and the findings can be used for better treatment and designing new medicines, said former Vice-Chancellor of JNTU-Kakinada and Chairman of Institute of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (IBCB), Prof. Allam Apparao.

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of the two-day workshop on Bioinformatics Tools in Diabetic Research here on Saturday, he said the origin of diabetes can be traced to four million years ago and it was present in marine species. The root cause and mapping of the disease is important, as diabetes has been declared a pandemic and India is the global capital of the health disorder, he said.

The professor further stated that Andhra Pradesh heads the count in India and it was estimated that about 20 per cent of the population in AP was affected by the disorder.

About two decades ago, the average impact age group was between 40 and 45 years, but in the present context it has come down to 25-30 years, thanks to the changing food habit and lifestyle, he noted.

Talking about bioinformatics, he said that it was an emerging field of science in which biology, computer science and information technology, merge to form a single discipline.

Vijay Lakshmi Saxena, HoD of Zoology, Dayanand Girls PG College, Kanpur, and former secretary of Indian Science Congress Association, in her address said that bioinformatics was a multi-disciplinary area of science that primarily deals with analysis of genes and understanding the biological pathway of diseases.

President (elect) of Indian Science Congress Association Ashok Kumar Saxena urged the young scientists who were present to participate in the Science Congress to get exposed to modern trends in science.

The two-day workshop is being organised by IBCB in association with JNTUKakinada and with support from the Department of Science, Delhi.

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Focus on bioinformatics tools in diabetic research