System-wide studies of a given molecular type are referred to as “omics.” These include genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, among others. Recent biotechnological advances allow for high-throughput measurement of cellular components, and thus it becomes possible to take a snapshot of all molecules inside cells, a form of omics study. Advances in computational modeling methods also make it possible to predict cellular mechanisms from the snapshots. These technologies have opened an era of computation-based biology. Component snapshots allow the discovery of gene-phenotype relationships in diseases, microorganisms in the human body, etc. Computational models allow us to predict new outcomes, which are useful in strain design in metabolic engineering and drug discovery from protein-ligand interactions. However, as the quantity of data increases or the model becomes complicated, the process becomes less accessible to biologists. In this special issue, six protocol articles are presented as user guides in the field of computational biology.

中文翻译：

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生物学家学习计算方法的用户指南

给定分子类型的全系统研究称为“组学”。这些包括基因组学，蛋白质组学和代谢组学等。最近的生物技术进步允许对细胞成分进行高通量测量，因此，可以对细胞内部的所有分子进行快照，这是组学研究的一种形式。计算建模方法的进步也使得从快照中预测细胞机制成为可能。这些技术开启了基于计算的生物学时代。组件快照可发现疾病，人体微生物等中的基因表型关系。计算模型可让我们预测新的结局，这对于代谢工程中的菌株设计以及从蛋白质-配体相互作用中发现药物非常有用。然而，随着数据量的增加或模型变得复杂，生物学家对该过程的访问变得越来越少。在本期特刊中，提供了六篇协议文章作为计算生物学领域的用户指南。