Program Mission and Focus

Program Mission
The mission of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BICB) graduate program is to provide interdisciplinary education in the area of biomedical informatics and computational biology at the interface of quantitative sciences, medicine, and biology. Graduate students receive training in the development and applications of computational methods and work in interdisciplinary teams of life scientists and computational scientists.

Faculty provide education through formal coursework, research seminars, and one-on-one advising. The focus of the Ph.D. program is on development toward independent research in an interdisciplinary environment. The M.S. program has two plans: Plan A includes a Master's thesis (10 credits) in addition to coursework (20 credits); Plan B is primarily focused on coursework (30 credits) with a capstone project (120 hours).

Program Focus
The programmatic focus of the BICB graduate program is at the interface of quantitative sciences, medicine, and biology, and thus by its nature, highly interdisciplinary. The graduate program trains graduate students in the development and applications of computational methods and to work in interdisciplinary teams of life scientists and computational scientists. The program offers industrial and clinical internships and training in business leadership, technology management, and ethics to prepare students for the workplace. In addition, the program provides a mentoring program for students and junior faculty that will serve as a model for interdisciplinary graduate education. The Minor addresses the needs of the rapidly increasing user group that includes graduate students in the life and health sciences, physical and chemical sciences, and engineering and computer sciences.