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The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. One of the key research areas was bioinformatics. Without the annotation provided via bioinformatics, the information gleaned from the HGP is not very useful. This page details HGP bioinformatics research.

Informatics is the creation, development, and operation of databases and other computing tools to collect, organize, and interpret data.

Continued investment in current and new databases and analytical tools is critical to the future usefulness of HGP data. Databases must adapt to the evolving needs of the scientific community and must allow queries to be answered easily. Planners suggest developing a human genome database, analogous to model organism databases, that will link to phenotypic information. Also needed are databases and analytical tools for studying the expanding body of gene-expression and functional data, for modeling complex biological networks and interactions, and for collecting and analyzing sequence-variation data.

Goals

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

• Improve content and utility of databases.
• Develop better tools for data generation, capture, and annotation.
• Develop and improve tools and databases for comprehensive functional studies.
• Develop and improve tools for representing and analyzing sequence similarity and variation.
• Create mechanisms to support effective approaches for producing robust, exportable software that can be widely shared.

Text adapted from F. Collins, Ari Patrinos, et al., "New Goals for the U.S. Human Genome Project: 1998–2003," Science 282: 682-689 (1998). For a more detailed explanation of informatics, see the U.S. DOE Primer on Molecular Genetics. For more on the project's goals, see the HGP Goals page.

Abstracts

• Bioinformatics abstracts from 2002 U.S.DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop IX
• Bioinformatics abstracts from 2000 U.S. DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop VIII
• Bioinformatics abstracts from 1999 U.S. DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop VII
• Informatics abstracts from 1997 U.S. DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop VI
• Informatics abstracts from U.S. DOE Human Genome 1997 Program Report
• Informatics abstracts from 1996 U.S. DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop V
• Five Years of Progress in the U.S. Human Genome Project: Informatics (December 1995)
• Informatics abstracts from 1994 U.S. DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop IV
• Informatics abstracts from U.S. DOE Human Genome 1993 Program Report
• Informatics abstracts from U.S. DOE Human Genome 1989-90 Program Report

Related Articles

• Human Genome News Bioinformatics Articles
• Computing the Genome an ORNL Review article by bioinformaticist Ed Uberbacher (1997)
• "Bioinformatics in the Post-Sequence Era," an article in Nature Genetics, Vol. 33 supplement

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