In this paper, the author(s) propose a new technique in spam detection from another discipline and propose an implementation of the underlying algorithm based on FPGA. The choice of algorithm are Needleman-Wunsch that are previously used in bioinformatics. By using Needleman-Wunsch as the main engine, real network traffic will be used as query and compared with spam signature to detect the real spam. Needleman-Wunsch algorithm is one of the earliest algorithm from the family of dynamic programming in approximate string matching. Applying Needleman-Wunsch algorithm in FPGA will greatly speeds the performance of this algorithm in spam scanning as it operate in hardware level instead of software level. � 2008 University of Plymouth All rights reserved.