Overview of Bioinformatics and its Application to Oral Genomics

Abstract

The “informatics revolution” in both bioinformatics and dental informatics will eventually change the way we practice dentistry. This convergence will play a pivotal role in creating a bridge of opportunity by integrating scientific and clinical specialties to promote the advances in treatment, risk assessment, diagnosis, therapeutics, and oral health-care outcome. Bioinformatics has been an emerging field in the biomedical research community and has been gaining momentum in dental medicine. This area has created a steady stream of large and complex genomic data, which has transformed the way a clinical or basic science researcher approaches genomic research. This application to dental medicine, termed “oral genomics”, can aid in the molecular understanding of the genes and proteins, their interactions, pathways, and networks that are responsible for the development and progression of oral diseases and disorders. As the result of the Human Genome Project, new advances have prompted high-throughput technologies, such as DNA microarrays, which have become accepted tools in the biomedical research community. This manuscript reviews the two most commonly used microarray technologies, basic microarray data analysis, and the results from several ongoing oral cancer genomic studies.