{"id":53300,"date":"2022-11-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?post_type=embletc&p=53300"},"modified":"2023-01-25T14:40:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T13:40:52","slug":"building-bioinformatics-capacity-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"embletc","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/embletc\/issue-99\/building-bioinformatics-capacity-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Building bioinformatics capacity in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Having one bioinformatician on a research team used to be enough, but as biology becomes more data-driven, bioinformaticians are in high demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is certainly the case in Latin America, where the data revolution is well underway in the life sciences. But one thing that is still missing is a critical mass of bioinformaticians to manage, analyse, and share the data more widely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial
Aerial shot taken during a CABANA visit to Bel\u00e9m in Brazil. Credit: Jeff Dowling\/EMBL-EBI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bioinformatics – getting insights from big data<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bioinformatics is the science of analysing, managing, storing and sharing biological data, usually on a large scale. Discovery and innovation rely on scientists sharing the data generated by their experiments; this way, the data can be reused by others to explore different scientific questions and gain new insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the number and scale of experiments increase \u2013 and more data are generated \u2013 the need for specialist databases, analysis tools, and data experts becomes urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bioinformatics enables scientists to exploit the large datasets available in public data resources such as the ones managed by EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), to answer diverse research questions, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • How and why do we differ from one another?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Why are some people more susceptible to disease?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Why do some drugs work for certain people but not for others?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How can we make crops more resistant to a changing climate?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What microorganisms live in the oceans and what functions do they fulfil?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How do we identify and monitor biodiversity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Bioinformatics is essential for cutting-edge research, such as drug discovery \u2013 developing new medicines or repurposing existing ones to treat different diseases \u2013 and \u2018white biotechnology\u2019, which aims to develop more useful products with less energy, while generating less waste. This could include, for example, enzymes that can degrade plastic, improve cleaning products to make them less toxic, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The applications of bioinformatics are endless, but to unlock them, researchers first need to be able to find and analyse molecular data from public databases. EMBL-EBI\u2019s Training team enables life scientists to do exactly this and make the most of the biological data that is openly available, in order to expand their science and gain new insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/strong>Strengthening bioinformatics capacity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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