Book excerpt: This volume comprises a selection of papers presented at ANNIMAB-1, the first conference to focus specifically on the topics of ANNs in medicine and biology. It covers three main areas: The medical applications of ANNs, such as in diagnosis and outcome prediction, medical image analysis, and medical signal processing; The uses of ANNs in biology outside clinical medicine, such as in data analysis, in molecular biology, and in simulations of biological systems; The theoretical aspects of ANNs, examining recent developments in learning algorithms and the possible role of ANNs in the medical decision process. Summarising the state-of-the-art and analysing the relationship between ANN techniques and other available methods, it also points to possible future biological and medical uses of ANNs. Essential reading for all neural network theorists, it will also be of interest to biologists and physicians with an interest in modelling and advanced statistical techniques.