Division of Bioinformatics
The Division of Bioinformatics at Bose Institute is involved in understanding the molecular basis in biology using computational tools, data mining, database management, statistical analysis, etc. Topics encompass evolutionary bioinformatics, stem cell bioinformatics and regulatory RNAs, oncogenomics, proteomics, drug design, structural bioinformatics and macromolecular dynamics. The Division was originally established in 1988 as one of the Distributed Information Centers, funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. In 2004 it was recognised by DBT as a “Centre of Excellence†in Bioinformatics. The activities of the Division maintain a balance between the fundamental as well as the translational research. The fundamental research includes the evolutionary biology, structural bioinformatics, macromolecular dynamics, etc. On the translational side, the centre is focusing the activities to bring benefits in the sector of healthcare like the systematic discovery of biomarkers of different prevalent diseases in India like asthma, designing genomics-based diagnostic tools for predicting cancer susceptibility and computational design of lead compounds etc. The bioinformatics resources (bioinformatics tools for NGS data analysis, database, prediction servers etc.) have also been developed at this Center, which has initiated collaborations with clinicians and other scientists in India as well as abroad. The Center has a decent setup of high-performance computing and routinely conducts training and workshops for students in order to spread scientific and technical skills in bioinformatics.
Some of the resources developed are: (i) Proface, (ii) lncrbase and pirnaquest, (iii) lmpid, daab, lmdipred, PPIMpred and pluripred.