All genes in an organism cannot be expressed all the time and a tight regulation is therefore essential for a cell to control its structure and function. Gene regulation is the basis for cellular differentiation and also plays an important role for an organisms to be able to respond to environmental stimuli and adapt to new situations.
Gene regulation includes many different mechanisms used by a cell to increase or reduce the production of specific gene products and includes control of both timing, location and the amount of the expression. Regulation can take place at all points of gene expression, including transcription, RNA processing and transport, mRNA degradation, translation as well as post-translational modifications of proteins.
Epigenetics
Epigenetics is the study of biological mechanisms that turn genes on and off. Epigenetics includes external DNA modifications that do not change the DNA sequence, but rather affects how genes are read by the cell. Examples of epigenetic changes include DNA methylation and histone modifications.
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field combining computer science, statistics and mathematics to analyze and interpret biological data. Biological systems are complicated and is more than the sum of its parts. In order to understand these complex biological systems, an integration of experimental and computational research is required.