My background is in computer sciences, including design of algorithms and theoretical computer science. I got interested in this because of some work in an area called DNA computing. That idea is to build computers out of DNA. The person who started that line of work - is a computer scientist who spent a quite a bit of time in a biology lab. His work really caught the attention of many people in the computer science community.
But then, as I got more interested in some of the algorithmic problems that come up, I realized they are also relevant in the more traditional biological areas. You have to talk to chemists and biochemists if you want to understand DNA and RNA - you can't get the right level of understanding just from reading papers. I got more interested in their perspectives and problems.   _{Your Comment}