Stemming the tide of genomics: computational genomics III.

THE GENOME REVOLUTION IS HERE. This revolution is unlocking the secrets of the entire DNA sequence of many microorganisms, beginning with Haemophilus influenza, some plants, and soon, the genome of the human will be revealed in its complete, annotated form. The effort has been likened to viewing the surface of a new planet for the first time. The information buried in the genes of a variety of living creatures will be used, in part, to trace human origins and to uncover clues to human diseases. Fortunately, the science of bioinformatics has kept pace with this explosion of data and provides us with the tools needed to analyze and interpret a vast amount of sequence information. Computer software programs containing elaborate algorithms to assemble and annotate genomic sequences, to identify coding regions, and to search for homologies are now widely used. Increasingly, there is an effort to reduce, as much as possible, the human intervention needed in both the collection and the editing of data. As the field matures, software programs for DNA sequencing and assembly will address new challenges including gene characterizations, comparative analyses of human and nonhuman genomic sequences, protein structure and function, and will contribute to the identification of target proteins for drug design. A new generation of tools combine computational methods with experimental technologies. The Third Annual Conference on Computational Genomics was held November 18–21, 1999 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, MD. This year’s conference was organized by Anthony R. Kerlavage of Celera Genomics, Steven Salzberg of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), and David Searls of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.