计算已成为生物学研究的基础。用于收集高通量数据的技术（例如基因组技术，质谱和MRI成像）以及大规模数据库（例如用于基因组，流行病学和生物信息类型汇编的数据库）的开发已提供了前所未有的数量需要大量计算方法来访问和分析的详细信息。这些数据和计算方法正在改变几乎所有的生物学研究。计算生物学家研究的问题包括疾病敏感性遗传学，比较整个基因组以揭示生命的进化史，预测蛋白质的结构，运动和相互作用，设计新的治疗药物，模拟细胞内复杂的信号传导机制等主题。 ，预测生态系统如何应对气候变化，并为濒危物种设计恢复计划。计算生物学
Computation has become essential to biological research. Technology for collecting high-throughput data, such as genomic technology, mass spectrometry, and MRI imaging, and the development of large-scale databases, such as those for genomes, epidemiology, and compilations of biological information types, have made available unprecedented amounts of detailed information that require computationally intensive methodologies to access and analyze. These data and computational methods are transforming almost all of biological research. Problems investigated by computational biologists include topics as diverse as the genetics of disease susceptibility, comparing entire genomes to reveal the evolutionary history of life, predicting the structure, motions, and interactions of proteins, designing new therapeutic drugs, modeling the complex signaling mechanisms within cells, predicting how ecosystems will respond to climate change, and designing recovery plans for endangered species. The computational biologist must have skills in mathematics, statistics, machine learning, and the physical sciences as well as in biology.