What does bioinformatics mean?
by David Staba BUFFALO, July 8 – In the bright sterility of a laboratory, a robotic arm moves almost imperceptibly over a rack of minuscule vials, each holding one-billionth of a liter of genetic material. Researchers at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences are looking for clues to who may be most susceptible to diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer, as well as for ways to treat or prevent such illnesses. For a region struggling to rebound from decades of decline, those microscopic specks – and the technology that allows scientists to analyze in an hour what used to take a year – symbolize the hope for an economy built on science rather than steel. “Maybe what we can do is take a little rust off the Rust Belt,” said L. Wayne Schultz, a research scientist at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, across the street from the Center of Excellence. Mr. Schultz also founded Buckler Biodefense, a spinoff company that is developing treatments fo
