Computational biology and bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops and applies computational methods to analyse large collections of biological data, such as genetic sequences, cell populations or protein samples, to make new predictions or discover new biology. The computational methods used include analytical methods, mathematical modelling and simulation. Computational biology is the science that answers the question “How can we learn and use models of biological systems constructed from experimental measurements?” These models may describe what biological tasks are carried out by particular nucleic acid or peptide sequences, which gene (or genes) when expressed produce a particular phenotype or behavior, what sequence of changes in gene or protein expression or localization lead to a particular disease, and how changes in cell organization influence cell behavior. A number of factors contribute to the confusion between the terms, including the fact that one of the top journals in computational biology is entitled “Bioinformatics” and that in German for example, computer science is referred to as “informatik” and computational biology is referred to as “bioinformatik.” Some also feel that bioinformatics emphasizes the information flow in biology. In any case, the two fields are closely linked, since “bioinformatics” systems typically are needed to provide data to “computational biology” systems that create models, and the results of those models are often returned for storage in “bioinformatics” databases.Computational biology is a very broad discipline, in that it seeks to build models for diverse types of experimental data (e.g., concentrations, sequences, images, etc.) and biological systems (e.g., molecules, cells, tissues, organs, etc.), and that it uses methods from a wide range of mathematical and computational fields (e.g., complexity theory, algorithmics, machine learning, robotics, etc.).