Accomplishments and challenges in bioinformatics

A new IT discipline - bioinformatics - fuses computing, mathematics and biology to meet the many computational challenges in modern molecular biology and medical research. The two major themes in bioinformatics - data management and knowledge discovery - rely on effectively adopting techniques developed in IT for biological data, with IT scientists playing an essential role. The future of molecular biology and biomedicine will greatly depend on advances in informatics. As we review researchers´ many achievements in bioinformatics, we´re confident that the marriage between molecular biology and information technology is a happy one. Accomplishments in bioinformatics have advanced molecular biology and information technology. Although many computational challenges lie ahead, more fruitful outcomes of this successful multidisciplinary marriage are likely.