| Programme details | |
|---|---|
| Degree: | Master of Science (MSc) |
| Discipline: |
Bioengineering & Biotechnology
|
| Duration: | 24 months |
| ECTS points: | 120 |
| Annual tuition (EEA) | 2,143 EUR |
| Annual tuition (non-EEA) | 18,700 EUR |
The MSc programme in Bioinformatics at Wageningen University provides students with a BSc in Life Sciences or Computer Sciences with skills necessary to manipulate large biological datasets, the ability to analyze these data and the ability to develop new bioinformatics tools.
Bioinformatics is a new scientific discipline with roots in computer science, statistics and molecular biology. It was developed to cope with the output of genome sequencing initiatives, that result in an ever-increasing amount of data available about DNA (public databases currently contain over 100 Gigabases of DNA), RNA and derived proteins. Bioinformaticians apply information technology to store, retrieve and manipulate these data and employ statistical methods capable of analysing large amounts of biological data to predict gene functions and to demonstrate the relationship between genes and proteins.
At Wageningen the Bioinformatics programme focuses on the practical application of Bioinformatics. Depending on previous BSc degree, candidates are requested to follow supplementary introduction courses. Students with BSc in Computer Science follow courses in molecular biology and students with BSc in Life Science courses on programming and computer science.
The curriculum commences with training in programming, data science and elementary bioinformatics tools aimed at using existing software to collect, analyze and interpret DNA and protein sequence information and moves on to more open challenges. Afterwards students follow Molecular Systems Biology.
Advanced bioinformatics courses deal with structural and functional genomics, transcriptomics and DNA array technology data, as well as algorithm development and machine learning. Alternatively, students can focus on systems biology.