An Introduction To Bioinformatics Algorithms

This book is about how to design algorithms that solve biological problems. We will see how popular bioinformatics algorithms work and we will see what principles drove their design. It is important to understand how an algorithm works in order to be confident in its results; it is even more important to understand an algorithm’s design methodology in order to identify its potential weaknesses and fix them.
Before considering any algorithms in detail, we need to define loosely what we mean by the word “algorithm” and what might qualify as one. In many places throughout this text we try to avoid tedious mathematical formalisms, yet leave intact the rigor and intuition behind the important concept.