The information necessary to build and control any living organism is written in its genome and stored in the language of the genetic code. It took 13 years and 3 billion dollars to decipher the human DNA blueprint. A single decade later, sequencing a whole genome takes but a few hours on a machine that fits on a tabletop and it costs just shy of 5000 dollars. Consequently, biological and medical sciences are now collecting enormous amounts of information. This tsunami of data generates new problems: it needs to be analyzed properly to unearth and retrieve the exciting knowledge it contains. And, most importantly, it also has to be made available to the scientific community in a useful way.
Scientists with skills in biology and in computer technology are challenged to extract the relevant information out of this phenomenal sea of data. Information technologies are essential for a proper understanding of the regulatory modalities of cells, organisms and even entire ecosystems. Developing algorithms and sound statistical tools to grasp the folding of macromolecules are the first steps on our way to model the mechanisms behind the pure DNA sequence. Ultimately, we want to understand how organisms that are as complex as a human being work.
