Bioinformatics in Italy: BITS 2012, the ninth annual meeting of the Italian Society of Bioinformatics

The BITS2012 meeting, held in Catania on May 2-4, 2012, brought together almost 100 Italian researchers working in the field of Bioinformatics, as well as students in the same or related disciplines. About 90 original research works were presented either as oral communication or as posters, representing a landscape of Italian current research in bioinformatics.This preface provides a brief overview of the meeting and introduces the manuscripts that were accepted for publication in this supplement, after a strict and careful peer-review by an International board of referees. © 2013 Gissi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.