BY BRIGITTE PETERSEN
A unique new program at Lakehead University is helping pave a path to a better way to manage biological data, which could lead to more effective drugs and medical treatments.
The Honours Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics program, which began at Lakehead in September 2010, combines several science disciplines, including biology and computer science, to provide students with the technical background to better understand the nature of biological systems.
Robert Mawhinney, program co-ordinator and associate professor at Lakehead University’s department of chemistry, was instrumental in establishing the new program.
“Bioinformatics has the potential to be the future of science, medicine and human evolution,” said Mawhinney, who specializes in physical chemistry and molecular modelling.
As described on the Lakehead University website, bioinformatics is the “integrated use of tools from mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry and physics (for) the scientific understanding of biological systems. In essence, it is the application of information technology to the field of biology, and in particular, molecular biology.”
Bioinformatics, also called computational biology, allows researchers to sift more quickly through large amounts of data. It involves creating databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data.
Lakehead offers a four-year Honours Bachelor of Science degree and a non-entry four-year Bachelor of Science program in bioinformatics. Students take core courses in bioinformatics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and computer science to gain an understanding of complex interactions in living systems, the physical and chemical nature of the living environment and the impact each has on the other.
With the field of bioinformatics in its infancy, and techniques for acquiring information about interactions between living systems and their environments still being developed, future prospects for graduates are numerous.
While only three students were enrolled in the bioinformatics program last year, Mawhinney expects that number will increase this fall and will continue to grow as the program becomes better known. It is the only program of its kind offered in Northern Ontario, and is unique in Canada as it offers core bioinformatics courses throughout the program.
Mawhinney, who earned his doctorate at the University of Guelph, developed the program based on a white paper published in 2002 by the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, bioinformatics.ca, and the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshop. The document, called “Bioinformatics Curriculum Recommendations for Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional Programs,” identified a growing demand for bioinformatics training in Canada.
The white paper states that, “Bioinformatics is dramatically shortening the time required to generate working models of biological regulation, development and physiology, hypotheses for drug action, models for combating infectious disease and destructive insects and developments in crop hardiness and enhancement.”
Mawhinney has consulted with companies in Thunder Bay to determine how the program can best serve the needs of the local burgeoning biotechnology community.
“By having somebody trained in the techniques, they can use bioinformatics to develop new products and come up with better cures because you are taking the information that all living systems have with respect to their DNA, computerizing it and analyzing it,” explained Mawhinney.
Bioinformatics has helped create what is known as “personalized medicine” whereby drugs are designed to work with a patient’s particular genetic makeup. The idea stems from the field of systems biology and involves understanding how an organism functions at the molecular level, including DNA, RNA and proteins. Bioinformatics provides the foundation for systems biology, taking biological data pertaining to various molecular interactions and building a descriptive model. “Bioinformatics is a pretty broad concept,” said Mawhinney. “If you have a big enough picture, eventually you can understand all different types of disease states and maybe you can go back and fix them.” Other potential applications of bioinformatics include bio-based processing, such as biorefining, the process of refining multiple products from biomass as a feedstock or raw material.
An emerging field of research, bioinformatics prepares graduates for career opportunities in university and medical research labs, research institutes, health-care facilities, forensic science, drug companies and the biorefining industry.
For more information about Lakehead University’s bioinformatics program, visit http://bioinformatics.lakeheadu.ca/
