Master of Science Program in Bioinformatics

Program Description

The Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the School of Medicine, in cooperation with the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Computing and Engineering, offers the Master of Science in Bioinformatics degree.  Students may complete the degree without an area of emphasis or may choose one of three emphasis areas (Clinical Research, Computational Bioinformatics, or Genomic Bioinformatics).

The program is designed to prepare a new generation of informatics professionals who will have the necessary skills to work collaboratively for the advancement of health sciences. Graduates are expected to be effective team members who can contribute to education, research, and development in the fields of bioinformatics and/or clinical research. This degree program prepares students to assume a variety of professional informatics positions in translational research and development, institutional management, public policy, information systems, hospitals, private industry, or as members of a clinical research team. Students completing the M.S. Bioinformatics degree may also choose to continue their education at advanced graduate levels.

Program Goals

1. Produce competent researchers at the interface of biomedical and health informatics and clinical research
2. Produce graduates able to establish partnerships with stakeholders and the community
3. Produce effective communicators
4. Produce ethical and responsible researchers

Student Learning Outcomes

Students graduating from this program will:

• Have the ability to perform statistical analysis.
• Have the ability to generate a research hypothesis.
• Have the ability to propose, conduct, and report research.
• Have the ability to apply knowledge and skills in biomedical informatics.
• Have the ability to communicate scientific information.

Degree Requirements

A minimum of 36 credit hours are required to earn the Master of Science in Bioinformatics degree. Students must complete the program of study while maintaining a 3.0 or better grade point average to earn the MSB.  The total number of credit hours, required coursework, elective course work and Thesis or Capstone requirements vary based on the MS Bioinformatics option selected by the student. These options are shown in the following table:

	MSB without an Emphasis	Computational Emphasis	Clinical Research Emphasis	Genomics Emphasis
Required course hours	18	24	24	33
Elective course hours*	12	6	6	0
Research & Thesis hours	6	6	6	6
Capstone option available*	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Minimum Total hours	36	36	36	39

*Students may choose to complete the 3 credit hour Capstone course and 3 additional elective credit hours in place of Research and Thesis credit hours. This option is not available for the Genomics Bioinformatics emphasis.

Please visit our Admissions pages to learn about our requirements.