Bioinformatics Question:

Today, we can use computers to access much more biological data than ever before. You can learn a lot by analysing this data. For example, you can identify genes by comparing genomic data across organisms and identifying patterns in the data. Insights as to the structure of proteins can be obtained through computer analyses of the protein sequences. These approaches are a lot faster and a lot cheaper than relying solely on wet lab or X-ray crystallographic techniques. Of course, computational techniques are often not as reliable as getting the first-hand view of the molecules. Clearly, you need both worlds: you need to take advantage of the computer tools when you know the predictions are reliable and use the more expensive techniques (in the wet lab) when you can’t get away from it.