Introduction:

The relationship between biology and computing in research has a long and rich history. This special issue of the Natural Computing journal explores various aspects of the interaction between computation and biology, and the benefits to each field this interaction brings.

The roots of this special issue stem from the co-location of two bio-inspired computing events held in York in 2009: the 9th International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS) and the 2nd Workshop on Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation (CoSMoS). The ICARIS conference series provides a platform for exploring a range of immune-inspired computing topics from immune-inspired algorithms and engineering solutions, to the understanding of immunology through modelling and simulation of immune system concepts. The CoSMoS workshops complement ICARIS by providing a forum for research examining all aspects of the modelling and simulation of complex systems and their emergent behaviours. Following these 2009 events a wider call for papers for the special issue was released, attracting further high quality submissions.

@article(Timmis-SI-2011,
  author = "Jon Timmis and Paul S. Andrews and Susan Stepney",
  title = "Editorial for special issue on the interaction between computation and biology",
  journal = "Natural Computing",
  volume = 10,
  number = 1,
  pages = "187-8",
  doi = "10.1007/s11047-010-9243-8",
  year = 2011
)