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What does mathematics
What does mathematics
contribute to bioinformatics?
contribute to bioinformatics?
Winfried Just
Winfried Just
Department of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Ohio University
Ohio University

A new microscope and a new
A new microscope and a new
physics
physics
In 2004 PLoS Biology published a paper by Joel E. Cohen
Mathematics Is Biology's Next Microscope, Only Better;
Biology Is Mathematics' Next Physics, Only Better.
Really?
How does this new microscope differ from the traditional ones?
How to use it?
Why did mathematicians become seriously interested in
biology?
And how is all this related to bioinformatics?

More empirical observations
More empirical observations
•
NSF and NIH recently started to invest heavily in biomathematics.
•
In 2002 the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI, located at
OSU) was founded; this is the first and so far only NSF institute
dedicated exclusively to applications of mathematics in one other
area.
•
Several other new research institutes in biomathematics are
supported from public or private sources.
•
A number of new journals specializing in biomathematics got
started.
•
The job market for biomathematicians is currently rather favorable,
both in academia and industry, especially in the pharmaceutical
industry.

What is behind this
What is behind this
trend?
trend?
And why do we observe this trend now, instead of 30
years ago or 30 years from now? There are two main
reasons:
1. Contemporary biology generate a huge mountains of data.
Drawing biologically meaningful inferences from these data
requires analysis in the framework of good mathematical models.
Hence mathematics has become a necessary tool for biology.
2. Currently available computer power allows us to investigate
sufficiently detailed mathematical models to draw biologically
realistic inferences. Thus mathematics has become a useful tool
for biology.

Biomathematics
Biomathematics
vs.
vs.
bioinformatics
bioinformatics
Everything that has been said so far about
“biomathematics” could also be said about
“bioinformatics.”
What is the difference between the two areas?
Biomathematics: Applications of mathematics to biology.
Bioinformatics: The design, implementation, and use of
computer algorithms to draw inferences from massive sets of
biomolecular data. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws on
knowledge from biology, biochemistry, statistics, mathematics,
and computer science.

Example of a huge data set
Example of a huge data set
:
:
Genbank
Genbank
The first viral genome was published in the 1980’s, the first
bacterial genome, H. influenzae, 1.83 · 10
6
bp, in 1995,
The first genome of a multicellular organism, C. elegans,
10
8
bp, w 1998. The sketch of our own genome,
H. sapiens, π · 10
9
bp, was announced in June 2000.