Infrastructural dearth bane of bioinformatics underuse – The Nation Newspaper

Nigeria has consistently under-explored the inherent potentials of bioinformatics due to dearth of infrastructure in the Information Communication Technology, Prof Samuel Oranusi has said.

The don, a keynote speaker at a training on bioinformatics organised by the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) in collaboration with Inqaba Biotec West Africa Limited, said the country was lagging behind in the adoption of the field of research for pragmatic solutions owing to erratic power supply, inadequate investment in inquiry and poor internet facility occasioned by inadequate broadband penetration.

The interdisciplinary field of science bothers on the development of methods and software tools, applying knowledge of computer science, statistics, mathematics and engineering to analyse and interpret biological data.

Oranusi also underscored the fact that the discipline suffered lack of an independent framework with a thoroughly designed curriculum for its research purpose.

He noted that while many universities treat it as a component of their coursework, there were few substantial projects to proof the study.

Apart from the job creation potential abound in its aspects of software development and real life applications, he said, the benefits including molecular medicine, personalised medicine, waste management initiatives, climate change management and preventive medicine could be derived from bioinformatics.

He called on the government to ensure disciplinary collaboration among the requisite fields.

FIIRO Director-General Prof Gloria Elemo represented by Dr Yemisi Asagbra, said bioinformatics was the next big thing in the area of molecular biology and was only apt for the institute to create its own unit.

We already have a state-of-the-art molecular laboratory which will be used for the bioinformatics. It will project science and people will have to come here for analysis. This would help researchers and academicians in their research work, she said.

Read the original here:
Infrastructural dearth bane of bioinformatics underuse - The Nation Newspaper