The flow of research data concerning the genetic basis of health and disease is rapidly increasing in speed and complexity. In response, many projects are seeking to ensure that there are appropriate informatics tools, systems and databases available to manage and exploit this flood of information. Previous solutions, such as central databases, journal-based publication and manually intensive data curation, are now being enhanced with new systems for federated databases, database publication, and more automated management of data flows and quality control. Along with emerging technologies that enhance connectivity and data retrieval, these advances should help to create a powerful knowledge environment for genotype–phenotype information. ; This is the author's final draft of the article published as Nature Reviews Genetics, 2009, 10 (1), pp. 9-18. The final version is available from http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v10/n1/full/nrg2483.html#abs. Doi: doi:10.1038/nrg2483