The separation or ``unzipping'' of the double helix strands of DNA is essential for the DNA to become biologically active in reproduction, repair, etc. A knowledge of where and under what conditions the DNA strand separates is thus crucial to understanding how the DNA expresses itself, and to locating the regions of DNA which may become active. (In humans, 90% or more of the DNA always remains inert.) Previous numerical methods, while agreeing well with experiments, were limited to very short strands of DNA. We thus first developed an improved Monte Carlo method for modeling DNA strand separation, but then discovered a numerically exact method for the process, powerful enough to simulate DNA strands of biologically relevant lengths. Continuing work, leveraged by collaboration with Prof. Craig Benham and Hong Zhi Sun of Mt. Sinai Medical School, is on developing an algorithm which can simultaneously model both DNA strand separation and the bending of the DNA molecule, in order to understand the interplay of these two effects.