Title :
Biological information processing as cloud computing
Author :
Shargi, Hanan Al ; Berkovich, Simon
Author_Institution :
George Washington Univ., Washington, DC, USA
Abstract :
What distinguishes biological complexity is that it is an information based complexity. Bioinformatics deals with genetic configurations of limited information content. It seems problematical that separate directives of several thousand symbols could be responsible for the whole richness of living systems. It is unrealistic to exempt biological systems from the requirements of information processing and expect them to function with inadequate amount of instructions. Recent findings of epigenetic effects bring the problem of information deficiency of the genetic configurations to the forefront. Analyzing the results of our Information theoretic analysis performed on biological sequences, and a survey of recent developments in the epigenetic research, we propose a novel approach to explain how biological systems function and achieve complexity where we consider the possibility that biological information processing can be organized in analogy with the emerging cloud computing paradigm. Such organization depicts great prospects to solving biology´s most enigmatic puzzles.
Keywords :
Internet; bioinformatics; genetics; Information theoretic analysis; Internet; bioinformatics; biological complexity; biological information processing; biological sequence; biological system; cloud computing; epigenetic research; genetic configuration; information content; information deficiency; living system; Bioinformatics; Biological information theory; Cloud computing; Entropy; Genomics; Humans; Information analysis; Information processing; Organisms; Sequences;
Conference_Titel :
Applications of Digital Information and Web Technologies, 2009. ICADIWT '09. Second International Conference on the
Conference_Location :
London
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4456-4
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4457-1
DOI :
10.1109/ICADIWT.2009.5273833