Biomedical informatics is a new discipline that is developing to meet the need for computational methods to integrate, model, store and retrieve biomedical data and ultimately to use this information to better understand biological systems. Scientists in biomedical informatics need multi-disciplinary skills and knowledge distinct from those of other disciplines.

History of the Field

The roots of computational biology extend back to the earliest days of genetics and molecular biology. For example, Fisher and Haldane brought mathematical analysis to Mendelian genetics and the seminal work of Watson and Crick is essentially a theory paper analyzing published DNA fiber X-ray diffraction data. The migration of scientists from physics and mathematics to molecular biology that began in the 1960s and continues to this day has stimulated a body of analytical and computational approaches to problems in molecular biology. Notable early converts include Walter Gilbert, David Botstein, Michael Waterman, and Temple Smith.

The ties between bioinformatics and medical informatics are intrinsic and deep. Medical informatics centers at Stanford, Yale and Harvard funded through the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems (IAMS) program fostered early research and training in bioinformatics including the development of the DENDRAL artificial intelligence program for automated mass spectra interpretation in the 1970s that anticipated current work in proteomics by 25 years. IAMS centers continue to be active centers for bioinformatics research. With the increasing importance of molecular diagnostics and biotechnology in clinical medicine, the fields of bioinformatics and medical informatics will remain closely interrelated.

Meetings held in the early 1980s in Los Alamos served to catalyze a very productive synthesis of mathematics and molecular biology from which the GenBank database, Smith-Waterman sequence alignment algorithm and Zuker RNA folding algorithm emerged.

The Human Genome Project served as the catalyst for an explosion in the field of bioinformatics. Computational tools were needed to manage the enormous flow of data generated by the project and to coordinate between collaborating labs throughout the world. More importantly, experimental methods were breaking the genome into small and ultimately experimentally tractable chunks, and the new computational methods were needed to assemble these fragments back into whole genome maps and sequences. The analysis of genome sequence further stimulated research into gene finding, regulatory region identification, and the study of gene expression networks.

With recognition of the importance of bioinformatics, funding opportunities have increased substantially. The field of bioinformatics is vital and growing rapidly with new initiatives in structural biology, proteomics, and cellular signal transduction modeling.

History of Bioinformatics at Michigan

The University of Michigan has a long-standing and broad history in quantitative biology. UM founded one of the nation’s first schools of public health and the nation’s first Human Genetics program in 1940 which in 1956 became the first department of human genetics in this country. Its chairman, James V. Neel, M.D., Ph.D., discovered new insights into the molecular basis of disease, including the genetic risks of radiation exposure. Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., cloned the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis and for neurofibromatosis. Using bioinformatics, he characterized neurofibromin as a GAP protein. Professors Charles Sing and Michael Boehnke have continued the tradition of statistical genetics with strong research and training programs.

Professor Fred Neidhardt pioneered a systematic view of microorganisms using 2-D gel surveys and the E. coli gene index. The systems approach has been carried forward by Professor Michael Savageau, the current chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. The analysis of complex systems has been a strong point at Michigan for many years and was strengthened by the establishment of the Center for Complex Systems in 1998 with biosystems as one of the key application areas.

Professor Gordon Crippen developed the distance geometry algorithm, a way to turn pairwise distance data sets into 3-dimensional structures that was a major step forward in structure determination by NMR spectroscopy. He has continued to apply novel computational methods to problems in protein folding and pharmacology.

In 1998, the Bioinformatics Graduate Program was established as an interdepartmental program with Professor Michael Savageau as its interim director. In 2000, degree granting authority was established as an interdisciplinary program in the Rackham Graduate School. David States, M.D., Ph.D., served as director of the Program from 2001 to 2005.  Our current director of the Bioinformatics Program is Daniel Burns, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics. 

The program now has over 100 affiliated faculty from diverse schools (Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health, Engineering, Information, and Literature Sciences and Arts) and departments (Human Genetics, Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering).