Having a BLAST

Abstract

DNA analysis is a subject that is in the news almost every day, whether it be a new advance in medical research, a criminal trial, or some other application. BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is an important tool used by biologists worldwide to compare DNA and protein sequences and to infer functional and evolutionary relationships between them. This paper presents a project for CS2 based on BLAST. The primary goal for this project is to provide an interesting, real-world application that reinforces the data structures and algorithms presented in CS2. This project also demonstrates object-oriented design techniques, and introduces computer science students to the new field of bioinformatics.