Problems and Solutions in Biological Sequence Analysis

This companion to the highly successful textbook, Biological Sequence Analysis by Durbin et al. (Cambridge, 1998), provides fully worked solutions to the original problems as well as new, fully worked problems. Together these will enable students to develop the problem solving skills that are essential for conducting successful research in the field of bioinformatics.

This book is the first of its kind to provide a large collection of bioinformatics problems with accompanying solutions. Notably, the problem set includes all of the problems offered in Biological Sequence Analysis, by Durbin et al. (Cambridge, 1998), widely adopted as a required text for bioinformatics courses at leading universities worldwide. Although many of the problems included in Biological Sequence Analysis as exercises for its readers have been repeatedly used for homework and tests, no detailed solutions for the problems were available. Bioinformatics instructors had therefore frequently expressed a need for fully worked solutions and a larger set of problems for use on courses. This book provides just that: following the same structure as Biological Sequence Analysis and significantly extending the set of workable problems, it will facilitate a better understanding of the contents of the chapters in BSA and will help its readers develop problem-solving skills that are vitally important for conducting successful research in the growing field of bioinformatics. All of the material has been class-tested by the authors at Georgia Tech, where the first ever MSc degree program in Bioinformatics was held.