This volume contains papers presented at the BCEC97 conference, held in Skövde, Sweden, in September 1997. The conference brought together researchers from biology and computer science to discuss the use of computational techniques in biology, as well as the use of biological metaphors in computing. Examples of the work presented in these papers include computer simulations of embryogenesis; algorithms for protein folding prediction; problem solving using DNA computation; neural-network learning in retina implants; and optimisation algorithms inspired by natural evolution.