Where should I study MS in Bioinformatics?

The merging of life sciences with engineering technology has brought in unprecedented progress in the research and analysis of biological components. A recent entrant, Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding and analysing biological data. It combines computer science, statistics, mathematics and engineering to analyse and interpret biological data. Bioinformatics is also used for in silico analyses of biological queries using mathematical and statistical techniques.

An extremely sought after field, the demand for well-trained Bioinformatics professionals far exceeds supply. Job opportunities in all sectors of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, research institutions, hospitals and industry, bioinformatics include sequence assembly, database design and maintenance, sequence analysis, proteomics (study of protein, particularly their structures and function) pharmacogenomics, pharmacology, clinical pha

The Masters in Bioinformatics covers concentrations that would help interpret complex biological information, perform analysis of sequence data using sophisticated bioinformatics software and program software when needed. Studying topics such as computational modelling, molecular biology, systems biology, structural biology, proteomics, genomic sequencing and genomic analysis, microarrays and microarray analysis would make one professionally competent to take on complex tasks in this field.

The prerequisites for taking up the course include a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in biological sciences or in engineering. A GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0 is required. The student should have completed at least two semesters in organic chemistry, one of biochemistry and should have studied introduction to programming using Java, C++ or C, Data Structures, Probability, Statistics and Calculus.

Below is a list of universities offering MS in Bioinformatics (in no particular order): 

• Northeastern University 
• University of Pittsburgh 
• University of Washington  
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
• Georgia Institute of Technology 
• University of California Irvine 
• University of California Los Angeles  
• University of California San Diego 
• University of Pennsylvania 
• Indiana University                                            
• University of the Sciences in Philadelphia 
• Virginia Tech 
• Carnegie Mellon University 
• University of Illinois Chicago                               
• University of Southern California 
• Columbia University
• University of Michigan Ann Arbor 
• University of California Santa Cruz 
• Vanderbilt University 
• Marquette University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology                        
• North Carolina State University