Databases, Knowledgebases, and Software Tools for Virus Informatics

Virus infection is a common social health issue. In the past decades, serious virus infectious events have caused great loss in people’s life and the economics. The nature of rapid widespread and frequent variation increases the difficulty for precision viral prevention and treatment. In the era of big data and artificial intelligence (AI), advances in bioinformatics techniques bring unprecedented opportunities for virus informatics study, which contribute to the systems-level modeling of virus biology. In this chapter, data resources including virus-related databases and knowledgebases are introduced. Bioinformatics models and software tools for multiple sequence alignment, evolutionary analysis, and genome-wide research of viruses are summarized and emphasized. Translational applications of recently developed data-driven and AI-assisted methods to viral cases such as SARS-CoV-2, HBV/HCV, and influenza virus are discussed. Finally, the concept and significance of virus informatics are highlighted for both virus surveillance and health promotion.KeywordsVirus informaticsDatabases and knowledgebasesBioinformatics toolsPrecision medicineSystems health