Alexei Sharov started his career as an entomologist and ecologist, but soon realized that he had to answer more fundamental questions: what is life, how it evolves, learns, and functions. Thus he got involved in the Research Group on Theoretical Biology at Moscow State University, and started publishing theoretical papers. Later he organized a seminar and two conferences on Biosemiotics, which is a synthesis of biology and semiotics, a theory on signs and meanings. Since 2002, he has worked in molecular biology and bioinformatics, and this new field helped him to advance further in the area of theoretical biology and biosemiotics. He has published over 200 papers and edited a special issue.