Tools
Wide variety of computational, mathematical and statistical methods are available and reported. The tools are helpful in ranging from text mining, information management, sequence analysis, molecular interactions and up to advanced systems simulation. Attempts are being made for the extraction of interesting and complex patterns from non-structured text documents in the immunological domain. Such as categorization of allergen cross-reactivity information, identification of cancer-associated gene variants and the classification of immune epitopes.
Immunoinformatics is using the basic bioinformatics tools such as ClustalW, BLAST, and TreeView, as well as specialized immunoinformatics tools, such as IMGT/V-QUEST for IG and TR sequence analysis, IMGT/ Collier-de-Perles and IMGT/StructuralQuery for IGvariable domain structure analysis. Methods that rely on sequence comparison are diverse and have been applied to analyze HLA sequence conservation, help verify the origins of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sequences, and construct homology models for the analysis of hepatitis B virus polymerase resistance to lamivudine and emtricitabine.
There are also some computational models which focus on protein–protein interactions and networks. There are also tools which are used for T and B cell epitope mapping, proteasomal cleavage site prediction, and TAP– peptide prediction. The experimental data is very much important to design and justify the models to predict various molecular targets. Computational immunology tools is the game between experimental data and mathematically designed computational tools.
Read more about this topic: Computational Immunology
Famous quotes containing the word tools:
“But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. “Authorities,” “disciples,” and “schools” are the curse of science and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its enemies.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.—The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)