Cancer bioinformatics: detection of chromatin states, SNP-containing motifs, and functional enrichment modules

In this editorial preface, I briefly review cancer bioinformatics and introduce the four articles in this special issue highlighting important applications of the field: detection of chromatin states; detection of SNP-containing motifs and association with transcription factor-binding sites; improvements in functional enrichment modules; and gene association studies on aging and cancer. We expect this issue to provide bioinformatics scientists, cancer biologists, and clinical doctors with a better understanding of how cancer bioinformatics can be used to identify candidate biomarkers and targets and to conduct functional analysis.