Inferring the Origin of the Genetic Code

The extensive production of data concerning structural and functional aspects of molecules of fundamental biological interest during the last 30 years, mainly due to the rapid evolving of biotechnologies as well as to the accomplishment of the Genome Projects, has led to the need to adopt appropriate computational approaches for data storage, manipulation and analyses, giving space to fast evolving areas of biology: Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. The design of suitable computational methods and adequate models is nowadays fundamental for the management and mining of the data. Indeed, such approaches and their results might have strong impact on our knowledge of biological systems. Here we discuss the advantages of novel methodologies to building data warehouses where data collections on different aspects of biological molecules are integrated. Indeed, when considered as a whole, biological data can reveal hidden features which may provide further information in open discussions of general interest in biology.