Biology Computing

The modern era of molecular biology began with the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. Today, sequencing nucleic acids, the determination of genetic information at the most fundamental level, is a major tool of biological research [79]. This revolution in biology has created a huge amount of data at great speed by directly reading DNA sequences. The growth rate of data volume is exponential. For instance, the volume of DNA and protein sequence data is currently doubling every 22 months [55]. One important reason for this exceptional growth rate of biological data is the medical use of such information in the design of diagnostics and therapeutics [24, 50]. For example, identification of genetic markers in DNA sequences would provide ∗Supported in part by Hong Kong Research Council.