The course surveys the major areas of bioinformatics at an introductory level, exploring the history of bioinformatics in relation to advances in computing hardware and software; the biological problems currently being addressed using bioinformatics; and future applications of bioinformatics. Major topics include genomics; genome sequencing projects; proteomics; structural genomics; phylogeny; medical informatics; and commercial applications of bioinformatics. The general nature of the data, computational problems and the approaches employed will be discussed in each case. Role of bioinformatics in the biotechnology industry. Structure of biotechnology industry stressing commercial, regulatory, and intellectual property areas. Diversity of industry sector and commercial case studies including biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy, use of transgenic plants and animals. Lectures are supplemented by practical exposure to public and commercial bioinformatics web sites.