Genetics and Molecular Research 16 (1): gmr16019645 Review Bioinformatics: an overview and its applications W.J.S. Diniz 1 and F. Canduri 2 1 Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brasil 2 Departamento de Química e Física Molecular, Instituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, SP, Brasil Corresponding author: F. Canduri E-mail: fcanduri@iqsc.usp.br Genet. Mol. Res. 16 (1): gmr16019645 Received February 16, 2017 Accepted March 2, 2017 Published March 15, 2017 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4238/gmr16019645 Copyright © 2017 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 License. ABSTRACT. Technological advancements in recent years have promoted a marked progress in understanding the genetic basis of phenotypes. In line with these advances, genomics has changed the paradigm of biological questions in full genome-wide scale (genome-wide), revealing an explosion of data and opening up many possibilities. On the other hand, the vast amount of information that has been generated points the challenges that must be overcome for storage (Moore’s law) and processing of biological information. In this context, bioinformatics and computational biology have sought to overcome such challenges. This review presents an overview of bioinformatics and its use in the analysis of biological data, exploring approaches, emerging methodologies, and tools that can give biological meaning to the data generated. Key words: Data analysis; Databases; Genomics; Systems biology