Written by Annika Colman
Illustrated by Aeysha Munawwarah
I’m sure that the word biology is something you’ve heard in passing at least once before, and phrases like ‘the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell’ are probably as traumatic to you as they are to me, at least if you’ve gone through any biology class. Whatever experiences you’ve had or haven’t had, you can’t go very far in life without reminders of how biology impacts our day-to-day lives, and there are so many different areas of biology that it’s hard to keep track of them all. But one of the most interesting fields that has begun growing more in recent years is bioinformatics.
Bioinformatics uses computers and math to store and analyze large amounts of biological data¹. While it’s gained more popularity since machine learning and other such algorithms have gained prominence, it is most certainly a field that is worth looking into. The general gist of it involves collecting biological data (such as our genomes—the complete set of DNA in our bodies—or proteins, the molecules responsible for most of our cellular functions) and compiling it for both storage and analysis purposes². This allows it to easily be accessed by researchers or even people who have no background in science at all. Bioinformatics makes it easier for data to be available for everyone.
One example would be the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, or BLAST for short. This is a compiled database of different nucleotide (the individual units that make up our DNA) or protein sequences. What that means is that if you have a specific protein or gene (which is an individual section of your genome that codes for different things) you want to match, you can run it through this database to see how closely it matches up with other genes/proteins³. BLAST is something that doesn’t just need to be used by scientists either. It’s used in classroom settings as well, here at the University of Toronto and at the high school level. The most important thing about BLAST is that it allows for efficiency. If you were a researcher, it would be far more annoying if you had to continuously search for the structure or function of whatever DNA or protein sequence you were studying, right? That’d just be tedious and redundant. The introduction of a database like this saves everybody a lot of time. Not to mention it provides statistical analyses of how close your chosen gene is to any other one, and the similarities are very interesting to see in real time.
Another example of databases built with bioinformatics would be the Alphafold Protein Structure database. This database essentially predicts the 3D shape of different proteins, which is important in biology as the shape of a protein determines its function. We know that our bodies are made up of different proteins that all play different roles with the structure of those proteins often being very important for their function to be served. For example, many of the symptoms of sickle-cell anemia exist because the proteins in our blood, the hemoglobin, misfold because of a mutation in their genetic code stopping them unable to perform their proper function⁴. Alphafold is useful in as it helps to determine the shape of a protein without having to go through the expensive and time-consuming process of fully trying to map out the structure. While it is important not to solely rely on models that may be incorrect, it does help in things like showing scientists where they should be looking.
Overall, bioinformatics as a field is proving to be very helpful to scientists in a variety of ways. The analysis of large data sets, as well as the ability to have a designated database for their storage, is incredibly helpful for the purpose of easy access for everyone. It is an area of science that generally lends well to help make science more accessible, both to researchers and to the public. While it is not for everyone, the results of it can be seen in any of the multitude of databases out there that would not have existed before it. As such, it is an interesting field, and definitely one worth looking into, if you ever have the time.
References
- Lesk AM. Bioinformatics | science. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2013. https://www.britannica.com/science/bioinformatics
- National Human Genome Research Institute. Bioinformatics. Genome.gov. 2025. https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Bioinformatics
- BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. Nih.gov. https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
- AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. Alphafold.com. 2021 [accessed 2026 Mar 12]. https://alphafold.com/about#nav-content-3