Recent advances in bioinformatics in the medical research environment and applications to the study of skin diseases.
The computer has become increasingly intertwined in society for the past 30 years. Within the academic health science centre, there is an increasing need for researchers to become skilled at using the Internet as a mechanism for the retrieval of scientific results and the underlying data. The discipline of bioinformatics, which uses computer technology to provide answers to biological questions, has been expanding in scope and utility for the past decade. Increasing numbers of research groups have been investing in bioinformatics infrastructure to aid in the research process. These continuing investments have led to the establishment for the first time of a supercomputing facility within a hospital. Such computational power is being used for the mapping of genes and the study of human disease. A discussion of the increasing role of computational biology in the research environment of the clinician scientist is presented here. Though the investment in a supercomputer may not be possible in most research settings, several less expensive alternatives relying on existing desktop computers can provide supercomputer-like performance within nearly any environment.