A Feasibility Study of Challenges and Opportunities in Computational Biology: A Malaysian Perspective

The term computational biology refers to the knowl edge derived from a computer analysis of biological data that includes identification of gen es in DNA sequence of different organisms, predicti on of structural and functional mechanism of proteins, feature extraction and classification of genomics and proteomics. Computational biology is a rapidly developing branch of science and is highly interdisciplinary, using techniques and Concepts fr om informatics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, statistics and biochemistry. This field has risen i n parallel with the developments of automated high throughput methods of biochemistry and biological d iscovery that yield a variety of forms of experimental data, such as DNA& RNA sequences, gene expressions patterns and chemical structures. The field's rapid growth is spurred by the vast pot ential for new understanding that can lead to new technological treatments, new agro-crops cultivatio n and new pharmaceutical drug discovery. In the recent years, most Bioengineering disciplines are s tarted adopting the information technology oriented curriculum due to its high performance computing, d ata interoperability, web-based platform compatibility and secured a suitable job opportunit y. This study discusses the challenges to set up an interdisciplinary oriented curriculum by merging li fe sciences and information technology at a university level. It also provides the career oppor tunities for different life science disciplines lik e drug development, microbial genome applications, biotechnology, forensic and analysis of microbes.

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