This
innovative book provides a completely fresh exploration of
bioinformatics, investigating its complex interrelationship with biology
and computer science. It approaches bioinformatics from a unique
perspective, highlighting interdisciplinary gaps that often trap the
unwary.
The book considers how the need for
biological databases drove the evolution of bioinformatics; it reviews
bioinformatics basics (including database formats, data-types and
current analysis methods), and examines key topics in computer science
(including data-structures, identifiers and algorithms), reflecting on
their use and abuse in bioinformatics.
Bringing these
disciplines together, this book is an essential read for those who wish
to better understand the challenges for bioinformatics at the interface
of biology and computer science, and how to bridge the gaps. It will be
an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate
students, and for lecturers, researchers and professionals with an
interest in this fascinating, fast-moving discipline and the knotty
problems that surround it.