Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data. It combines computer science, statistics, mathematics, and genetics to analyze and interpret complex biological data sets. Bioinformatics plays a crucial role in various areas of biology such as functional genomics, proteomics, phylogenetics, and comparative genomics. The goal is to improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie living systems and help researchers make discoveries that can lead to new treatments for diseases or improvements in agriculture, among other applications.