The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples (SZN) is one of the most prominent research Institute for marine biology and ecology since 1872. The primary mission of the institute is the research on the fundamental processes of biology, focusing on marine organisms, their biodiversity and evolution, and the dynamics of ecosystems. SZN conducts also innovative research in the field of marine biotechnology, exploiting molecules or species for industrial or pharmaceutical applications. The institution has five distinct research departments: BEOM (Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms), EMI (Integrated Marine Ecology), RIMAR (Research Infrastructures for Marine Biological Resources), BLUBIO (Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology) and CAPE (Marine Animal Conservation and Public Engagement).

The interest of SZN in bioinformatics is rapidly spreading, with many remarkable activities ongoing thanks to the efforts undertaken by different research teams in the institute. With the aim of coordinating all the bioinformatics activities, in 2017 the bioinformatics service of the institute (https://bioinfo.szn.it/) was officially established, funded by a 2017 flagship project “BIOINforMA” (BIOINformatics for MArine Biology). Specifically, the service is in charge of coordinating the bioinformatics activities in SZN, providing services and training activities to the SZN community, with the main aim of supporting both marine genomics and metagenomics. The bioinformatics service is also involved in the implementation of computational models to study marine ecosystems, actively producing data, databases and software.