Collecting large amounts of biological data is becoming easier and more affordable and as a result biology has become a data science. Examples of biological data include genetic sequences, genomes, epigenomes, proteomes, metabalomes and microbiomes. These large data sets require specialized and powerful computational and statistical tools for analysis. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary science that applies computational and statistical methods to biological information in order to make new discoveries and to solve complex biological problems.The discovery of thousands of disease-causing genes since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 exemplifies the power of early bioinformatics methods. Bioinformatics tools are now routinely used to study the underlying cause of disease and to find more effective treatments as well as to study biological patterns and develop biological and chemical models.Bioinformatics is a powerful multidisciplinary science that applies computational and statistical tools to curate and analyze expansive amounts of biological data. The utility of bioinformatics is being realized in an ever-increasing number of fields including molecular biology, personalized and preventative medicine, biotechnology, food technology, agriculture, and environmental science, and many others.