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Prospective Students

The MSc programme in Bioinformatics at De Montfort University aims to provide a bridge for those talented students with backgrounds in information technology and biology to cross over their existing disciplines and come into this exciting new field. This course is offered by the Faculty of Computing Sciences and Engineering in cooperation with the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

Awards

The course is modular which means that a number of qualifications are available depending on the number of modules taken and passed.
1. Successful completion of four taught modules leads to the award of Postgraduate Certificate
2. Successful completion of the eight taught modules or of four taught modules plus the project leads to the award of Postgraduate Diploma.
3. Successful completion of all eight modules plus the project leads to the award of MSc.

The Course

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary area where mathematics, statistics and computer science are used to solve problems in biology. The development in modern biology and gene technology has generated a wealth of information. The hereditary information of several model organisms are systematically examined as the complete nucleotide sequences of their genomes are being determined. There is no doubt that all this experimental data and the information derived from it will have a tremendous impact on all disciplines of biology, including medicine. For the management and analysis of data in this field there is a growing demand for tools provided by mathematics, statistics and computer science. Bioinformatics is typically concerned with processes related to the flow of genetic information, mainly linear sequences of DNA and proteins, as well as problems related to protein three-dimensional structure.

The Aim

To meet the growing demand for knowledge and skills in this area, De Montfort University offers a Masters of Science (MSc) programme in Bioinformatics. The aim of the programme is to provide students with knowledge of the various types of problems addressed in bioinformatics, skills in the computational techniques used and insight into their theoretical basis. On the completion of the programme, students should be  competent bioinformaticians, either ready to embark upon a PhD in Bioinformatics, or to take up a position in a bioinformatics group, either in industry or in academia. Also, proficiency in communicating across different disciplines is an important part of the course. An interdisciplinary area such as bioinformatics may easily suffer from communication problems; there is a need for a common language. By bringing students with different background together, the training in understanding and communicating with people of other disciplines is assured. More specifically, on completion of the programme students should:

• understand basic biological principles and systems;
• be familiar with biological databases, and available tools to analyse the information in such databases;
• have skills in design and implementation of bioinformatics systems including databases, algorithms, and visualisation, and
  be able to model biological data and systems, and understand the logical structure and conceptual basis.

Course Structure

The complete programme covers three terms of full-time study: 20 credit units of taught modules in the first term, 20 credit units in the second term and a master thesis project of 20 credit units in the third term. Two different introductory taught modules are given in parallel during the first two weeks. Basics in Biology, and Basics in Mathematical Statistics and Computer Science, respectively. Depending on the student’s background he/she takes one of these; a student with a background in mathematics should take Basics in Biology, and vice versa. These taught modules are intended to provide enough basic knowledge in the area which the student has little or no previous experience, to allow him/her to follow the rest of the programme. All other taught modules are given jointly to both groups of students (Biology/Medicine and Engineering/Mathematics/Computer Science).

The core modules of the programme

Attendance mode

• Full-time Mode
  Students attend lectures during three semesters over one year;
• Part-time Mode
  Students following the part-time route attend the same lectures as full-time students. However, their study spreads over three years instead of one year.