This thesis investigates applications of the gauge/gravity duality to strongly coupled quantum field theories. After a review of the duality and of correlators and transport in quantum systems, we present our results on second-order non-conformal hydrodynamics. We derive new Kubo formulae for five second-order transport coefficients in non-conformal relativistic fluids. We then apply these Kubo formulae to a class of non-conformal holographic fluids at infinite coupling. We find strong evidence that the Haack-Yarom identity, known to relate second-order coefficients in conformal holographic fluids at infinite coupling, continues to hold in holographic fluids without conformal symmetry: Within our class of models, we prove that it still holds when leading non-conformal corrections are taken into account, and we show numerically that it is also obeyed beyond leading order. This provides further evidence that the identity may be a universal feature of strongly coupled fluids. Next, we present our results on magnetic spin impurities in strongly correlated systems. We build a holographic two-impurity Kondo model, identifying the inter-impurity interaction as double-trace deformation. Our numerical results for the phase diagram suggest a quantum phase transition between a trivial phase with uncorrelated spins and no Kondo screening, and a non-trivial phase with anti-ferromagnetic correlations and simultaneous Kondo screening. Computing the spectrum in the single-impurity case, we observe Fano resonances, which at low temperatures we identify with the Kondo resonance.