The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It was established in 1988 to provide access to biomedical and genomic information. NCBI hosts a variety of databases, including those for DNA sequences, protein structures, and scientific literature, making it a vital resource for researchers and healthcare professionals. NCBI also develops tools and software for data analysis, such as BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), which helps identify similarities between biological sequences. By facilitating access to vast amounts of information, NCBI supports advancements in fields like genomics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics.