Introduction: Wither Bioinformatics in Human Health and Heredity

With a working definition of bioinformatics provided, this chapter briefly outlines the premises with which integration of information from several disciplines are used in this newly introduced discipline. While not an entirely new subject, research areas of bioinformatics have wide diversity and they have important implications not only in basic science, particularly in molecular biology, systems biology, and genomics, but also in translational research with applications in medical, public health, and health policy practices. We note that bioinformatics and computational biology are not synonymous, but they adhere to a common broader interdisciplinary field. With illustrations of different research areas within this subject, some of which are addressed in the chapters of this volume, this introduction ends with a listing of some of the open areas of research in bioinformatics.