Bioinformatics data plays vital role: Kalam

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 21:

Stressing that the convergence of Bioscience and Information Technology into Bioinformatics has given thrust to genomics-based drug discovery and development, President A P J Abdul Kalam said there was a growing need for new informatics tools to help manage the influx of data from genomics and turn that data into tomorrow's drugs.

''Bioinformatics data plays a vital role and is emerging as a business model for the medical and pharmaceutical sector. It has a major role in key areas such as gene prediction, data mining, protein structure modeling and prediction, protein folding and stability, macromolecular assembly and modeling of complex biological systems,'' he said during an Interaction with Siddha and Ayurvedic medical college students at the Santhigiri Ashram at Pothencode on the outskirts of the city.

Mr Kalam said the need of the hour was to network the existing facilities and expertise with commitment and conviction to augment and facilitate the pace of research and development in the field of Indian traditional medicine. ''Our country is rich in human resources, particularly of scientists, doctors, technologists and engineers. The basic infrastructure is available for advanced research.'' he added.

The President said that there were tremendous opportunities for technologists to work for the objective of ''Integrated Health For All'' in a mission mode approach.