Information Technology in the Biotech Space

The most significant advances in biotechnology possibly have been overshadowed by the overwhelming developments taking place in computing. Or has it?

On May 22, 2007 a story written by Dawn Kawamoto and reported in CNET News, headlined "Google invests $3.9 million in biotech start-up". The question is why has Google Inc, so heavily invested in information technology turned to the biotech industry as another possibly lucrative business opportunity?

To answer that question we need look no further than the types of information technologies needed to unravel, analyze, process and present data from the genomes of numerous plant and animal species. Google's mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" fits perfectly with the scientific needs of the biotech industry i.e Genomic data.

Let us look at the human genome to understand a little more about what this actually means. The human genome consists of 3164.7 million (~3.2 billion) chemical nucleotide bases. Without all the bells and whistles, this means that to interpret and understand this information, you need

* computer processing power,
* database management capability,
* database security technology and
* expertise in web-based platforms and lots of it!

The use of this collective computing power in the analysis of genomic or more broadly described, biological information is called Bioinformatics. This rapidly growing field of biotechnology has opened an avenue for web-based information technology companies and individuals willing to learn and use on-line and stand alone software platforms to process the huge amounts of biological data being generated, globally.

The truth is that the business of biotechnology as it evolves is inextricably linked to the business of information technology, with more and more players entering the sub discipline of bioinformatics annually.

Dr. Gregory I. Simpson


References
http://news.cnet.com/Google-invests-3.9-million-in-biotech-start-up/2100-1014_3-6185860.html?tag=mncol
http://www.google.com/corporate/
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/primer/bioinformatics.html

Working on a new medical school project for a client. The challenge now is to meet the 09 start date. IM strategies are going to be key.

Internet marketing can be daunting to the uninitiated. Particularly in the Biotech space. Rule 1: Properly define your niche market.