Since 2006, the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) has been publishing selected papers in BMC Bioinformatics. Papers within the scope of the journal from the 13th InCoB July 31-2 August, 2014 in Sydney, Australia have been compiled in this supplement. These span protein and proteome informatics, structural bioinformatics, software development and bioimaging to pharmacoinformatics and disease informatics, representing the breadth of bioinformatics research in the Asia-Pacific.