Bioinformatics Opportunities

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Bioinformatics Opportunities

• Dr. B.N. Mishra, Head
• Department of Biotechnology
• Institute of Engineering Technology
• Lucknow
• Presentation on 24-10-07 at conf on BPO KPO

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What is Bioinformatics?

• Bioinformatics is the application of computer
  technology and statistics to the management of
  biological information.
• In the past decade bioinformatics has become an
  integral component of research and development in
  biological sciences.
• The need for bioinformatics stems from a
  fundamental change that is taking place in
  biology.

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Bioinformatics Is a Merging of Disciplines
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Bioinformatics
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Industry Characteristics

• The global Bioinformatics industry has grown at
  a double-digit growth rate in the past and is
  expected to follow the same pattern in the next
  four years. US remains the largest market in the
  world, but Asia-Pacific countries, particularly
  India and China, are witnessing the fastest
  growth and are anticipated to emerge as the
  dominating forces in future.

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Market share of different Segments of
Bioinformatics
 
Genomics 50 Proteomics 20 Chemiinformatics 1
9 Pharmacogenomics 11
 
 
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Steps involved in bringing a drug to market

• Identifying drug target Genomic, Functional
  Genomic, Proteomics
• Screening for an affective chemical High
  throughput screening, virtual screening,
  combinatorial chemistry
• Animal Trials in-silico prediction of metabolic
  pathways effected by the drug
• Drug Development and Clinical Trials data
  management, analysis

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The Role of IT in Bioinformatics

• 1. Electronic Data Capture
• 2. Data Mining
• 3. Data Warehousing
• 4. Data Visualization
• 5. Customized Software

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Data Pipeline in Microarray Analysis
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At the Periphery of Bioinformatics

• Medical Informatics
• Clinical Trials (around 6 billion annually)

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• The gap between medical informatics and
  bioinformatics is closing. Patient data is being
  integrated with genomic data.
• Data mining in clinical trials, patient data for
  adverse effects, efficacy of drugs, etc
• Represents a major opportunity for outsource.

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Outsourcing Model in Technology Businesses

• Outsourcing has developed as an important
  concept in today's business.
• 1) Focus on core strength - the opportunity cost
  of adding a new segment of services to an
  existing business is high. Companies prefer to
  not diverge from their focus on their core
  competencies, and stay competitive.
• 2) Improve operational efficacy and stay
  competitive the outsourcing partner can be
  relied upon to choose the best technology for
  automation

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Outsourcing cont. 3) Leverage top talents from
the bioinformatics companies companies can
make use of the best resources engaged in IT
services without having to worry about
recruiting, training and retaining
professionals   4) Minimize on total cost of
ownership the rate of obsolescence is very
high in the IT sector. Companies who outsource
do not have to bear the replacement costs that
accompany obsolescence.
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Outsourcing cont. 5) Improve service delivery
to customers the company can dictate to the
outsourcing partner the timelines it is required
to meet. 6) Reduce cost and time the time
spent otherwise on planning and development is
saved and better utilized to managing the
existing resources. 7) Expand service portfolio
companies can extend their services without
having to invest on building in house
capabilities
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• Outsourcing
• Inspite of a tremendous increase in demand, the
  US educational stream has not significantly
  increased the production of scientific
  workforce.
• As a result cost of research has gone higher.
• Many companies are realizing that they can get
  their research done abroad, at cheaper cost,
  without any compromise in quality.
• In clinical trials for example, GSK (Glaxo smith
  Kline) has announced that it will shift 30 of
  its clinical trials to countries like India and
  China.

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Research Scientists and Internal
Bioinformaticists Would Like

• Integration of public, proprietary, and 3rd party
  data through one interface.
• Ability to perform cross-database queries.
• Rapid searching of large volumes of data with
  the ability to control filtering.
• Indication that new, relevant information is
  available.

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Types of Bioinformaticspeople
Bioinformatics Scientist-a laboratory scientist
who has skills with Unix, Perl, SQL, etc., knows
the limitations of available bioinformatics
tools, and uses these tools and his/her
scientific knowledge to help the validation
process in the lab. Bioinformatics
Programmer/DBA-a programmer/DBA who understands
the biological questions being asked and has
expertise in Unix, Perl, SQL, C, Java, XML,
etc. in order to build bioinformatics databases
and applications. Bioinformatics IT
Administrator a system administrator who is able
to create and maintain a hardware infrastructure
that can handle the data formats, file sizes, and
application requirements for essential and
high-throughput bioinformatics endeavors.
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Bioinformatics Companies

• Companies purely focusing on software
  development / provision of IT services
• Companies integrating Biotech with
  bio-informatics

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What Is a Bioinformatics Company Like?

• Consists of Biologists, Computer Scientists,
  Mathematicians and Marketing people.
• Active participation of client in the
  development stage
• Only those companies who are able to adapt and
  innovate will survive.

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• A great deal of competition exists in the field.
• For any new company offering bioinformatics
  services or products, proof of concept, will
  be essential. This means that a nascent company
  will need to demonstrate its ability before
  getting business.

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Indian Companies

• Indian IT companies such as Tata Consultancy
  Services (TCS), Cognizant Technologies, Infosys,
  Wipro, and Satyam have already set up their
  bioinformatics divisions. 
• Biotech Park, Lucknow is engaged in facilitating
  the industry and RD institute interface for
  development of various softwares and databases.
  ACS-bioINFORMATICS at Biotech Park is engaged in
  clinical data management as well as datamining
  services for drug discovery and vaccine
  designing.
• TCS has entered the bio-informatics market with
  its indigenously developed computing platforms
  and applications (Biosuit). The company is
  nurturing a big team that is working on
  development bio-informatics software solutions.

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• A database application, specially created for the
  bioinformatics segment is in the pipeline. TCS is
  also looking at developing bio-informatics
  software applications in collaboration with
  biotech and pharma companies.  

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• Satyam's Center of Excellence has identified Data
  warehousing and Datamining as a key initiative
  area in the field of bio-informatics since the
  field is an emerging domain where data
  warehousing and datamining techniques and
  concepts are used extensively for deciphering
  complex patterns and to correlate and analyze the
  vast volumes of data generated.

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• Pharmaceutical companies too, are making moves
  into the bioinformatics arena. GVK Biosciences,
  Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Biocon, Astra Zeneca,
  Ranbaxy, Biological E, and Nicholas Piramal are
  some of the names that have either opted for the
  joint venture route or have tied up with start-up
  companies. 

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Recommendation
Suggestions on how to develop bioinformatics
business in India can be divided into three
broader categories. 1. Raising
Awareness 2. Development of Human
Resource 3. Business Model Development
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Recommendation

• Awareness
• ? Raising Awareness about Bioinformatics
  Opportunities.
• Workshop for promotion of Bioinformatics Business
  in India
• Business Model and Policy Initiatives
• Bioinformatics will develop along with
  biotechnology
• First focus on local market
• a. Collaboration with local researchers and
  industry
• b. Collaboration with the bioinformatics
  suppliers, Contract Research might be the first
  step
• Support to the manpower
• Public Private partnership

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Recommendation
In the field of bioinformatics and biotechnology
, the partnership between industry and academia
would take two forms. 1. The academic
institution outsources translational work,
development of a marketable products, any
database or software product to a commercial
company, the copy right is maintained by the
academic institutions. 2. The academic
institution and the industry collaborate in the
entire project and share the copy right / patent.
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Recommendation
Following steps are recommended to facilitate
industry-academia partnership ? Understanding
the industry environment and market environment
through techno-economic market surveys ? Invento
rying the transferable technologies available
within the BTIS network and making them
available on the public domain ? Developing an
Industry-Institution Partnership programme at
national, regional and international level.
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Recommendation
? Promoting the growth of business incubators in
the field of bioinformatics ? Provision for
industrial and entrepreneurial consultancy
services ? Encourage enterprise creation
through liberalized flow of foreign capital,
outsourcing, infrastructure generation
etc. ? Adequate emphasis on human resource
development that suits the requirement of the
industries.
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Recommendation

• Seeding Grants to develop bioinformatics
  Expertise
• Creation of a Model Bioinformatics Company
• DBT support for bioinformatics education and
  startups
• Clearing House
• A web based clearing house, comprising the list
  of projects (provided) and IT tools/ softwares
  (also provided) should be maintained by DBT. This
  would serve 2 purposes.
• 1. It will allow Indian practitioners to form a
  community of their own, where they can share
  information with each other.
• 2. It will publicize their competence to attract
  customers for both local and international
  market.

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Recommendation

• Private entrepreneurship model for
  Bioinformatics
• Foreign Assistance for Human Resource
  Development
• Need for Resource Integration
• Development of Human Resources
• What sort of bioinformatics experts would be
  needed by Industry
• Collaboration between Bioinformatics
  Educational Institutes and Researchers

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Recommendation
Funding of Bioinformatics Research
Government support of Bioinformatics
programs Combine scientific expertise with
Entrepreneurial Skills Advocacy for
improvement in School level Education General
directions and suggestions can be given but the
field will develop once Bioinformatics will
require IT experts and biologists to sit together
and collaborate with one another.