title: The roots of bioinformatics in theoretical biology.
abstract: From the late 1980s onward, the term "bioinformatics" mostly has been used to refer to computational methods for comparative analysis of genome data. However, the term was originally more widely defined as the study of informatic processes in biotic systems. In this essay, I will trace this early history (from a personal point of view) and I will argue that the original meaning of the term is re-emerging.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics Group, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. P.Hogeweg@uu.nl
authors.forename: Paulien
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hogeweg
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods*; D003201:Computers; D016678:Genome; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical