نبذه عن الكتاب: Preface We have been very pleased, beyond our expectations, with the reception of the first edition of this book. Bioinformatics, however, continues to evolve very rapidly, hence the need for a new edition. In the past three years, fullgenome sequencing has blossomed with the completion of the sequence of the fly and the first draft of the Human Genome Project. In addition, several other high-throughput/combinatorial technologies, such as DNA microarrays and mass spectrometry, have considerably progressed. Altogether, these highthroughput technologies are capable of rapidly producing terabytes of data that are too overwhelming for conventional biological approaches. As a result, the need for computer/statistical/machine learning techniques is today stronger rather than weaker. Bioinformatics in the Post-genome Era In all areas of biological and medical research, the role of the computer has been dramatically enhanced in the last five to ten year period. While the first wave of computational analysis did focus on sequence analysis, where many highly important unsolved problems still remain, the current and future needs will in particular concern sophisticated integration of extremely diverse sets of data. These novel types of data originate from a variety of experimental techniques of which many are capable of data production at the levels of entire cells, organs, organisms, or even populations