This book offers a gripping introduction to the fastest growing field of biology with easy-to-follow examples and a well-prepared appendix for the reader to cook up and experience everything right away.

The book gets the reader started with the basics, such as how to easily find sequence information and then analyze it. In further chapters, the authors go into the various analysis options from RNA, DNA and proteins to entire metabolic pathways. Exciting examples from biology are chosen in each chapter to illustrate the analysis. Each chapter concludes with an exercise section that immediately puts what has been learned to use.

The subject of this book is a must for any biology student, whether undergraduate or graduate, as bioinformatics is now unearthing amazing insights into the molecular basis of all living things. Computer science students and other students from related sciences will get a good introduction to bioinformatics, as biology and current topics (e.g. AI)are systematically introduced step by step alongside the software.

Discover the key to life together with the authors and learn to understand the language of life.

This book is a translation of the original German 2^nd edition Bioinformatik by Thomas Dandekar and Meik Kunz, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

I How does bioinformatics work?

1 Sequence analysis: deciphering the language of life
2 Magic RNA
3 Genomes - molecular maps of living organisms
4 Modeling metabolism and finding new antibiotics
5 Systems biology and uncovering the causes of disease. II How do I understand bioinformatics?"- 6 Superfast sequence comparisons identify which molecules are present
7 Better understand signaling cascades by measuring encoded information
8 When does a computer stop computing?"- 9 Complex systems behave in fundamentally similar ways
10 Better compare evolution with a computer
11 Design principles of a cell. III What is the magical, fascinating thing about bioinformatics?
12 Life is always developing new information in dialogue with the environment
13 Life is always inventing new levels of language
14 We can think about ourselves - the computer cannot
15 How is our own, extremely powerful brain built?
16 Bioinformatics connects life with the universe and all the rest
17 Conclusion. 17 Concluding remarks and summary
IV Glossary, tutorial, solutions and web links
18 Glossary
19 Tutorial: an overview of important databases and programs
20 Solutions to the exercises
Appendix: overview of important databases and programs and their general use
Index.