A crucial tool in modern molecular biology is comparing newly found DNA and protein sequences against databases of previously discovered sequences. Such searches are routine because similar sequences often have similar functions in living organisms, and database searching is a simple way to get some ideas about the purpose of the new sequence.
Dynamic programming is a well-known methodology for string comparison.
It is efficient, with modern versions using only quadratic time and linear space. It would seem to be an obvious choice for searching DNA and protein databases. These databases are so large and the queries so numerous, however, that dynamic programming is too slow.