InKoMBio is a Priority Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

During the middle of the 20th century, information theory and molecular genetics have gone through a great history of success: On one hand the fundamental work of Shannon in 1948, which has giving rise to the modern information- and communication society we are living in. On the other hand the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA by Watson and Cricks in 1953, which was the beginning of contemporary genetics and its use in medicine. The information stored in the DNA, is transmitted, duplicated, and changed (mutated).  It further controls many processes in and in between cells. Interestingly, all these procedures can be described and analyzed with models and methods of information theory. We are convinced that information- and communication theorists, together with biologists and medical scientists can contribute to a better understanding of processes in the cell concerning communication, even though there  is good progress in research over the last years.In information theory and coding theory, transmission of information is viewed in an abstract way, so one can expect that independent of concrete realizations, the concepts, modules and results can be applied to molecular communication processes. Therefore this program focuses exclusively on assisting interdisciplinary projects in between information-and communication scientists on one hand, and biologists and medical scientists on the other hand.

Modern Biology, often referred to as the key science of the 21th century, is currently undergoing a transformation. The amount of new data demands the integration of the traditional biology with the other sciences. New theoretical concepts, modern methods of data analysis and mathematical models will play a strategical role in molecular biology and this can only be accomplished by intensive interdisciplinary collaboration. This program intends to encourage and assist this collaboration.