Bioinformatics

M.S. Requirements

The M.S. in Bioinformatics is a two-year professional program that emphasizes computation and informatics but also integrates knowledge from biology, statistics, and related areas. It prepares students to pursue a bioinformatics career or admission to a Ph.D. program.

Prerequisites

Our M.S. students are expected—but not required—to have at least introductory knowledge of both informatics and biology, including:

• Approximately 6 credit hours of undergraduate course work in biology, covering molecular biology, genetics, and evolution
• Approximately 6 credit hours of undergraduate course work in computer science or informatics, covering programming, discrete structures, and data structures

If you have not completed these prerequisites, you will be required to take one or two appropriate 500-level background classes suggested by the program directorate.

Students are required to complete 30 credit hours of graduate-level course work, including the following courses:

• INFO-I 519 Introduction to Bioinformatics (3 cr.)
• INFO-I 529 Machine Learning in Bioinformatics (3 cr.)

Other courses can be selected from a wide range of bioinformatics-related course offerings in computer science, informatics, biology, statistics, mathematics, or chemistry.  Students will be advised on their individual study plans by the program directorate.

Students must also complete a yearlong, 6 credit hour capstone research project in their second year, including an oral presentation to the public and submission of a written report.  These projects are typically supervised by one of the core bioinformatics faculty members, but we encourage students to work with a supervisor in a related discipline—such as biology, computer science, chemistry, or medical sciences—and choose a co-supervisor among the bioinformatics core faculty.

All other courses can be selected from topics and seminars in bioinformatics and courses in related disciplines.