MS Bioinformatics & Systems Biology

The Bioinformatics & Systems Biology (BISB) doctoral program covers a wide array of topics to address questions in biomedical research from novel algorithm development to the application of bioinformatics tools for knowledge discovery. The research opportunities and curriculum in the BISB doctoral program is designed to meet the needs of students with formal training in biological and/or computational sciences. Applicants with dual training in computational and life sciences will be given preference in admissions; however, those with strong credentials in only one area but demonstrate some level of proficiency in the complementary area will also be considered. Admitted students in the program with deficiencies will received additional training (didactic course work, journal clubs, focused workshops, etc.) in the complementary areas. The expertise of the participating faculty members varies widely from pure wet lab research to pure computational research. Students have the option to choose co-mentors to provide bioinformatics and biological expertise or to or work exclusively with one mentor with bioinformatics expertise. Most of the research projects involve bioinformatic data analyses either preceding (hypothesis-generation) or succeeding (hypothesis-testing) an experimental component.