Bioinformatics – (M.Sc.)

Bioinformatics is a very active interdisciplinary research field. Within the last 50 years, advances in biological research have revolutionized our understanding of the molecular basis of life: From the 1940s, when it was first realized that genetic information is encoded in the DNA and to today, when we know the complete DNA sequence for a number of species - including the human. This and other major breakthroughs have changed the science of biology for good. Just a few years ago, one was studying the genes one by one, whereas today, new experimental technologies allow us to survey all the genes in an organism, as well as their activity levels and complex interactions.

Computers are necessary to handle and analyze the enourmous amounts of data from such experiments and this is the where bioinformatics is essential. Bioinformatics (or computational biology) aims at solving biological problems using mathematical, statistical and computational techniques. Modern biological and medical research can not be done without bioinformatics.

A career in Bioinformatics
Modern biology requires bioinformatics. A bioinformatician works in the border between life sciences and mathematical disciplines, and solves biological problems using computational and statistical techniques. The problems span almost every biological questions – for example, you might focus on analyzing gene expression data from cancer patients to build diagnostic tools, predict the structure and function of newly found genes, or analyze ancient DNA from pre-historic humans. Many bioinformaticians are experts at handling and mining large datasets from high-throughput experiments, and others are experts in developing new tools using advanced machine learning or other computational techniques. They are highly sought after by both industry and universities.