What is bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to manage biological information. Computers are used to gather, store, analyze and integrate biological and genetic information, which can then be applied to gene-based drug discovery and development. Biological sequence analysis has existed as a niche on the edge of other well-established research areas - molecular biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science. The possibilities which lie in using the computer as a tool in obtaining understanding of, and manipulating, genomes and other biological macromolecules, depend on the quality of the collaborations which are established in the field. In the next century it is expected that the research will have a strong impact on conceptions of the micro and macroscopic characters of genomes, the relation between individual and species, and the interplay between man and the evolutionary process.

Why bioinformatics?
The 21st century is witnessing the dawn of Biotechnology, which is expected to surpass Information Technology as the new engine of the global economy. Its products will be more important than the fire, the wheel, or the car and will generate more knowledge in a short period of time than history's collective wisdom. Biotechnology is expected to alter healthcare, agriculture, commercial and industrial products. It is predicted, that by the middle of the 21st century, all companies will become Biotech companies in some form or the other. One of the key driver and enabler of this emerging technology is bioinformatics. Large scale DNA arrays and other tools of genomics and proteomics offer unique opportunities, which will revolutionize medical research and development in this century. Bioinformatics is a highly interdisciplinary subject that calls for expertise in different disciplines, such as, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, statistics and mathematics. What are the opportunities in bioinformatics? Bioinformatics provides the integrated approach of mining the voluminous data generated by the HGP to identify and understand human diseases and to develop corresponding drug and gene based therapies. Bioinformatics will increasingly replace conventional methodologies in the area of drug discovery and drug delivery. The importance of Bioinformatics is gaining rapid acceptance and bioinformatics groups comprising of computational biologists, computer scientists as well as computer engineers are being constituted at universities, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies. The worldwide Bioinformatics market is mostly localized in the United States and Europe. The market value of products and services is valued at over US$ 2 billion. Predominantly, there are two application areas - Agriculture and Pharmaceuticals. While Agricultural Bioinformatics depends on the whole genome sequencing of plants, the pharmaceutical sector relies on the success of the Human Genome Sequencing efforts along with the sequencing of the mouse and other model organisms for comparative genomic efforts and for clinical trials in model organisms. Given the nascent nature of this industry and the large number of private players in the field, the current market for external products and services is hard to determine. Surveys of the 50 or so bioinformatics tool and database companies by market research groups like Frontline and Frost & Sullivan, for example, put the current market for bioinformatics databases, products and services at roughly $300 million, with about half of the annual sales by data suppliers and half of the sales by tool/IT providers of various kinds. These groups and other industry observers believe that this market could grow to $1.5-2.0 billion over the next five years. These estimates exclude some significant internal spending on IT infrastructure by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that is bioinformatics related, and could be as large as $ 2.0 billion + annually. As discussed above, also excluded are most of the project-based R&D collaborations between 'pharma/ag-bio' companies and genomics companies that include bioinformatics "content," which total well over $1.0 billion on a cumulative basis over the past 3-5 years

What is Pharmacogenomics?
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how the genetic inheritance of an individual affects his/her body’s response to drugs. It is a coined word derived from the words “pharmacology” and “genomics”. It is therefore the study of the relationship between pharmaceuticals and genetics. The vision of pharmacogenomics is to be able to design and produce drugs that are adapted to each person’s genetic makeup. Pharmacogenomics results in the following benefits 1. Development of tailor-made medicines. Using pharmacogenomics, pharmaceutical companies can create drugs based on the proteins, enzymes and RNA molecules that are associated with specific genes and diseases. These tailor-made drugs promise not only to maximize therapeutic effects but also to decrease damage to nearby healthy cells. 2. More accurate methods of determining appropriate drug dosages. Knowing a patient’s genetics will enable doctors to determine how well his/ her body can process and metabolize a medicine. This will maximize the value of the medicine and decrease the likelihood of overdose. 3.Improvements in the drug discovery and approval process. The discovery of potential therapies will be made easier using genome targets. Genes have been associated with numerous diseases and disorders. With modern biotechnology, these genes can be used as targets for the development of effective new therapies, which could significantly shorten the drug discovery process. 4. Better vaccines. Safer vaccines can be designed and produced by organisms transformed by means of genetic engineering. These vaccines will elicit the immune response without the attendant risks of infection. They will be inexpensive, stable, easy to store, and capable of being engineered to carry several strains of pathogen at once.

What is HGP?
Started formally in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome Project is a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The project originally was planned to last 15 years, but rapid technological advances have accelerated the expected completion date to 2003. Project goals are to