Strategies and opportunities for promoting bioinformatics in Zimbabwe
Date
2018-11-29
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
Introduction: The increasing applications of advanced technologies in life sciences are fueling the growth of
data from genome sequencing, functional genomics experiments, and macromolecular structure
determination. Bioinformatics (sometimes interchangeably used with the term “computational
biology”) permits researchers to collect, manage, and sift through these massive data sets
and derive scientific insight from them [1,2]. Bioinformatics holds a big promise in addressing
many of the problems that are facing humanity today, including human health, agriculture,
and the environment [3–8]. Consequently, the demand for skilled scientists with the ability to
use information technology to solve life science problems has been rising steadily globally.
Similar to other developing countries in Africa, bioinformatics is slowly gaining popularity
among Zimbabwean scientists. In this paper, we review the progress made by Zimbabwean scientists
in bioinformatics and propose strategies for boosting bioinformatics capacity in the
country. To our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to give a comprehensive report of
bioinformatics activities in the country. As such, it is inevitable that our review may not be
exhaustive and may fall short of mentioning or acknowledging groups or scientists who have
contributed or presented their work on other platforms.
Description
CITATION: Shoko, R., et al. 2018. Strategies and opportunities for promoting bioinformatics in Zimbabwe. PLoS Computational Biology, 14(11):e1006480, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006480.
The original publication is available at https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol
The original publication is available at https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol
Keywords
Bioinformatics, Computational biology, Bioinformatics in Zimbabwe
Citation
Shoko, R., et al. 2018. Strategies and opportunities for promoting bioinformatics in Zimbabwe. PLoS Computational Biology, 14(11):e1006480, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006480