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Research at the interface between biology and other sciences is very popular at present. Often, research at this so-called 'life sciences interface' involves physical scientists (broadly defined) employing existing techniques and expertise to solve existing biological problems. The problem with this approach is that in the long run, the physical scientists lose interest, and the biologists end up solving problems they already know about. It is my contention that genuinely fruitful, long-term collaboration should involve topics that excite both sides - biology giving rise to new problems in the physical sciences, and the physical scientist leading the biologists to ask questions they've never asked before.
In my talk, I will discuss a number of areas in which such interaction between informatics/computer science and biology may be possible. The presentation is going to be very much an impressionistic sketch by someone whose expertise is neither biology nor informatics. The purpose is solely to generate discussion!
