Bioinformatics, the application of computers in biological sciences and especially analysis of biological sequence data, is becoming an essential tool in molecular biology as genome projects generate vast quantities of data. With new sequences being added to DNA databases, on average, there is a vital requisite to convert this information into biochemical and biophysical knowledge by explaining the structural, functional of biological sequences. This book begins by introducing the most popular databases (protein and nucleic acid), information resources and analysis methods (sequence alignment and pattern recognition) currently available providing the basis for readers to progress to hands-on practical sequence analysis. It explains some basic algorithms in bioinformatics to readers who have exposure to computer science, mathematics, and statistics. The text also explains the structural bioinformatics that lies at the interface of structural biology and informatics, each of which derive their principles from highly interdisciplinary areas that goes beyond traditional bioinformatics knowledge.

Origin and History of Bioinformatics / Introduction to Molecular Biology / Sequence Alignment / Biological Database / Multiple Sequence Alignment / Substitution Matrix / Phylogenetic Tree / Hidden Markov Models / Experimental Techniques and Geometrical Analysis of Structures / Protein Structure Prediction and Protein Folding / RNA Structure Prediction / Gene Prediction / Micro Array Image Analysis / Bioinformatics using Matlab.