<p>{{Technical|date=September 2013}} {{Infobox algorithm |name= <!-- Defaults to article name --> |class= [[Sequence alignment]] |image= |caption= |data= |time= O(mn) |best-time= |average-time= |space= O(mn) }} The &#39;&#39;&#39;Needleman&ndash;Wunsch algorithm&#39;&#39;&#39; is an [[algorithm]] used in [[bioinformatics]] to [[sequence alignment|align]] [[protein]] or [[nucleotide]] sequences. It was one of the first applications of [[dynamic programming]] to compare biological sequences. The algorithm was developed by Saul B. Needleman and Christian D. Wunsch and published in 1970.{{cite journal | journal=Journal of Molecular Biology | volume=48 | issue=3 | pages=443&ndash;53 | year=1970 |author1=Needleman, Saul B. |author2=Wunsch, Christian D. |last-author-amp=yes | title=A general method applicable to the search for similarities in the amino acid sequence of two proteins | url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0022-2836(70)90057-4 | pmid=5420325 | doi = 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90057-4 }} The algorithm essentially divides a large problem (e.g. the full sequence) into a series of smaller problems and uses the solutions to the smaller problems to reconstruct a solution to the larger problem.{{cite web|title=bioinformatics |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1334661/bioinformatics/285871/Goals-of-bioinformatics#ref1115380|accessdate=10 September 2014}} It is also sometimes referred to as the [[optimal matching]] algorithm and the [[Sequence alignment#Global and local alignments|global alignment]] technique. The Needleman&ndash;Wunsch algorithm is still widely used for optimal global alignment, particularly when the quality of the global alignment is of the utmost importance. [[File:Needleman-Wunsch pairwise sequence alignment.png|framed|right|Figure 1: Needleman-Wunsch pairwise sequence alignment</p>