Are you looking to advancing your career in the field of biosciences and bioinformatics? There are many trending new areas within biology like astrobiology, bioinformatics, etc. Given the current pandemic situation, you should explore one of the hottest trends within bioinformatics and vaccine research – immunoinformatics and reverse vaccinology.
What is Immunoinformatics?
Immunoinformatics, also known as computational immunology, is the interface between computer science and experimental immunology. It represents the use of computational methods and resources for the understanding of immunological information.
Why do we Need Immunoinformatics?
A large volume of data related to immunology research has been stored as the result of the sequencing of genomes of the human and other model organisms. At the same time, huge amounts of clinical and epidemiologic data are being deposited in various scientific literature and clinical records. This accumulation of the information is like a treasure for researchers looking for mechanisms of immune function and disease pathogenesis.
Thus the need to handle this rapidly growing immunological resource has given rise to a new field known as Immuno-informatics. It not only helps in handling a huge amount of data but also plays a significant role in defining new hypotheses related to immune responses.
Reverse Vaccinology
Reverse vaccinology uses the expressed genomic sequences to find new potential vaccines. Normal vaccines are created using the pathogenic organism. The term reverse refers to the use of expressed DNA over the purified proteins from the organism itself.
The reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics strategies are still under the progressive phase. So, it would be wise to get solid exposure to these new emerging areas within biotechnology and bioinformatics.
Read how you can make a career in vaccine research.
Applications of Immunoinformatics and Reverse Vaccinology
This topic involves tools and databases of potential epitope prediction, HLA gene analysis, MHC characterizing, in silico vaccine design, mathematical modeling of host-pathogen interactions, and network analysis of immune system data, classical immunology, different databases, and prediction tools, applications of Immuno-informatics in Reverse vaccinology, immune system modeling, and cancer diagnosis and therapy.
Reverse vaccinology employs the expressed genomic sequences to fish out new potential vaccines. Normal vaccines are synthesized using the pathogenic organism. The term reverse refers to the use of expressed DNA over the purified proteins from the organism itself.
Importance of the Immunoinformatics and Reverse Vaccinology Course:
Immuno-informatics will enrich students’ minds as it has paved the way for a better understanding of some infectious disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, and their relationship with immune system response and computational vaccinology. It also explores the concept of integrating Immuno-informatics with Systematic & computational biology for the development of personalized medicine.
Career Prospects
With a degree in Immuno-informatics or computational biology, students can work in the commercial, academic and government fields. Titles like computer and information research scientists or data scientist or data analyst are usually associated with the ones having this background education.
Not just in academics but also in industries, computational biology and Immuno-informatics is growing at an impressive rate.
Specific career domains: The main career paths include database design and maintenance, Vaccine development, Reverse Vaccinology, Proteomics, Pharmacology, sequence assembly & analysis, informatics developer, Bioanalytics, Clinical pharmacologist, etc.
Job Profiles: Bioinformatics Software Developer. Research Scientist and Associate.
Top Companies: Major players in computation and medicine have invested heavily in computational biology and bioinformatics, including Google, Microsoft, Life Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Roche, and Merck.