As Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that combines computer science, mathematics, statistics and molecular biology and genetics, it has become an integral part of medical research.
Bioinformatics involves the use of computational methods to tackle data intensive, large-scale biological problems.
The process usually comprises four steps, which are -
- Collect statistics from biological data.
- Build a computational model.
- Solve a computational modeling problem.
- Test and evaluate a computational algorithm
What are the prospects in Career Abroad?
Bioinformatics is most useful in medical and biological labs where large amounts of data need to be analyzed.
With the increased focus on research in areas such as biomedical diseases and medical genomes, bioinformatics is essential to propagate research in these fields.
Graduates specializing in Bioinformatics can go on to become professors, science technicians, bioinformatics scientists and analysts, research associates and assistants, and bioinformatics software developers.
Their expertise is highly sought after in a variety of industries. The different types of opportunities available for these graduates include computational biologists, database programmers, gene analysts, scientific curators, network administrators, phylogenitists, molecular modelers, bio statisticians, cheminformaticians and pharmacogeniticians.
Here is a list of fields that utilize career abroad in Bioinformatics:
- Molecular medicine
- Preventive medicine
- Personalized medicine
- Gene therapy
- Microbe genome applications
- Forensic analysis
- Crop involvement
- Drug development
- Waste cleanup
- Veterinary science
- Bio-weapon creation
- Insect resistance
- Biotechnology
- Climate change studies
- Antibiotic resistance
- Nutritional enhancement
- Evolutionary studies
- Development of drought-resistance varities
- Alternative energy sources
Program Entry Requirements
- In order to be eligible for this program, students will need to have an undergraduate degree with a major in either bio-medicine, biology, computer science, or mathematics and statistics.
- Some universities require the student to have gone through specific courses for a minimum number of hours. Some of these subjects include genetics, molecular biology, evolution, informatics and computers.
- For students whose primary language is not English, IELTS or TOEFL scores are required.
- GRE scores are also required by most US universities.
Top Schools for an MS in Bioinformatics
- New York University
- University of California Los Angeles
- Harvard University
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- George Mason University
- Boston University
- Columbia University
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Northeastern University
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities
- University of Southern California
- Purdue University
- Indiana University
- University of Texas at Dallas
- North Carolina State University
- San Diego State University
- La Trobe University
- University of Melbourne
- The University of Auckland
- Ecole Polytechnique
- University of Bologna
- Technical University of Munich
- Freie Universitat Berlin
- University of Glasgow
- University of Birmingham
- Lund University
- Uppsala University