Key Bioinformatics Terms for Data Scientists
Learn key bioinformatics terms including the various "-omics" and the differences between the types of DNA and RNA to help you understand one of the key applications of data science.
By John Unikowski, Sept 2014.
Connectome: the complete description of the structural connectivity of an organism’s nervous system, often used in connection as a comprehensive circuit diagram of the human brain
Enhanceosome: A complex of proteins, transcription factors that assemble cooperatively at the enhancer region of a gene; the region of DNA that can increase transcription.
Exposomics: refers to the study of the amount of environmental contaminants that a person is exposed to from conception onwards during their lifetime, covering their eventual impact on genomes and ultimately health.
i2b2: Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside, a framework facilitating the design of targeted therapies for individual patients by enabling clinicians to use existing data for discovery research
Indel: a type of genetic variation involving either an insertion or deletion mutation of a specific nucleotide sequence
Inflammasomes: comprise protein complexes implicated in physiological and pathological inflammation, that are activated upon cellular infection or stress to facilitate innate immune defences.
Isogenic: Two organisms are isogenic when possessing the same genetic composition.
Karyotype: an individual's collection of chromosomes. It is equivalent to the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of a eukaryote (somatic) cell. It also refers to a lab technique that produces a photomicrograph of an individual's chromosomes
Kinome: the genome subset comprising the protein kinase genes expressed in a cell
Metagenomics: describes the functional and sequence-based genomic analysis of the collective microbial genomes contained in an environmental sample by direct extraction and cloning of DNA
Microbiome: the total genetic content of microbes, that are collectively referred to as microbiota, colonising a given environment, especially the human body,
-Omics: the study of related sets of biomolecules, interpreted by a specified computational model.
Operon: A group of distinct genes that are expressed and regulated, functioning as a single transcription unit.
Retrotransposon: A small, mobile DNA sequence that can move from one genomic location to another by producing RNA that is transcribed by reverse transcriptase back into DNA, which is then inserted at a new site. It is also called a retroposon.
siRNA: Small interfering RNA (siRNA) are small pieces of double-stranded (ds) RNA 20-25 nucleotides long that can interfere with the translation of proteins i.e. with the expression of a specific gene
Transcriptome: the full range or complement of all RNA molecules, including mRNA, rRNA, tRNA and other non-coding RNA in cells.
Transposon: a segment of DNA that inserts and independently replicates itself in another place in the genome.
Variome: comprises the variants in an individual's genome, the total set of genetic variations found in populations of species that have experienced a relatively short evolutionary change
John Unikowski studied Chemistry with Biochemistry for BSc at Brunel University, London then obtained an MSc in Bio-Organic Chemistry from the University of St Andrews. His bioinformatics experience includes 5 years with Thomson Corporation as a scientific indexer involved in the updating of pharmaceutical databases. Currently he is working as a freelance information scientist with interests in both chem.- and bioinformatics.
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Connectome: the complete description of the structural connectivity of an organism’s nervous system, often used in connection as a comprehensive circuit diagram of the human brain
Enhanceosome: A complex of proteins, transcription factors that assemble cooperatively at the enhancer region of a gene; the region of DNA that can increase transcription.
Exposomics: refers to the study of the amount of environmental contaminants that a person is exposed to from conception onwards during their lifetime, covering their eventual impact on genomes and ultimately health.
i2b2: Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside, a framework facilitating the design of targeted therapies for individual patients by enabling clinicians to use existing data for discovery research
Indel: a type of genetic variation involving either an insertion or deletion mutation of a specific nucleotide sequence
Inflammasomes: comprise protein complexes implicated in physiological and pathological inflammation, that are activated upon cellular infection or stress to facilitate innate immune defences.
Isogenic: Two organisms are isogenic when possessing the same genetic composition.
Karyotype: an individual's collection of chromosomes. It is equivalent to the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of a eukaryote (somatic) cell. It also refers to a lab technique that produces a photomicrograph of an individual's chromosomes
Kinome: the genome subset comprising the protein kinase genes expressed in a cell
Metagenomics: describes the functional and sequence-based genomic analysis of the collective microbial genomes contained in an environmental sample by direct extraction and cloning of DNA
Microbiome: the total genetic content of microbes, that are collectively referred to as microbiota, colonising a given environment, especially the human body,
-Omics: the study of related sets of biomolecules, interpreted by a specified computational model.
Operon: A group of distinct genes that are expressed and regulated, functioning as a single transcription unit.
Retrotransposon: A small, mobile DNA sequence that can move from one genomic location to another by producing RNA that is transcribed by reverse transcriptase back into DNA, which is then inserted at a new site. It is also called a retroposon.
siRNA: Small interfering RNA (siRNA) are small pieces of double-stranded (ds) RNA 20-25 nucleotides long that can interfere with the translation of proteins i.e. with the expression of a specific gene
Transcriptome: the full range or complement of all RNA molecules, including mRNA, rRNA, tRNA and other non-coding RNA in cells.
Transposon: a segment of DNA that inserts and independently replicates itself in another place in the genome.
Variome: comprises the variants in an individual's genome, the total set of genetic variations found in populations of species that have experienced a relatively short evolutionary change
John Unikowski studied Chemistry with Biochemistry for BSc at Brunel University, London then obtained an MSc in Bio-Organic Chemistry from the University of St Andrews. His bioinformatics experience includes 5 years with Thomson Corporation as a scientific indexer involved in the updating of pharmaceutical databases. Currently he is working as a freelance information scientist with interests in both chem.- and bioinformatics.
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