Official account of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. NCBI serves as an international resource for the scientific research community - providing access to public databases and software tools for analyzing biological data, as well as performing research in computational biology. The NCBI was established in 1988 by an act of the United States Congress as division of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, with a mission to find new approaches to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of biological data in order to facilitate the understanding of genes and their role in health and disease.The NCBI is made up of multidisciplinary research and development teams composed of molecular biologists, biochemists, structural biologists, clinicians, mathematicians, and computer scientists who: Archive: Gather scientific and medical research data from around the globe • Serve as the largest repository of the world's primary biological research data • Produce curated datasets to enhance the value and usability of the primary dataAccess: Develop systems for discovering and integrating scientific and medical data • Create search tools and data cross-referencing mechanisms • Display and enable download of information from the world's largest collection of biological dataAdvance: Promote understanding of processes that effect health and disease • Perform cutting-edge research in computational biology • Design and build algorithms, programs and systems for analysis of biological data • Provide support and training through a varied and vigorous outreach program.