Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics
The emerging field of Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that teaches you how to analyze large-scale datasets and apply that analysis to solve problems in a variety of professional, medical, and scholarly fields. The Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics will train students in basic concepts and skills to perform computational analysis of biological data - including the human genome. Students will be able to participate in research with Institute faculty and other faculty in departments across the campus. Institute core and adjunct faculty teach many of the informatics (INFO) classes offered each semester.
Learn more about the career opportunities available for bioinformatics majors here.
For more information about the Bioinformatics program contact Elliot Lefkowitz, Program Co-director
Admissions Criteria
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the Bioinformatics program, admission criteria is higher than those for either biology or computer science.
Learn more about Admissions Criteria
Plan of Study
The plan of study for this program includes courses in biology, chemistry, computer sciences, mathematics, informatics and core curriculum courses.
Click here for the Plan of Study
Undergraduate Informatics Courses
Click here for course listing of Informatics courses offered at the undergraduate level.
Below is a listing of classes offered during the upcoming semesters.
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Fall 2023
INFO 302: Bioinformatics-I
CRN: 62024
Min CR: 3
Schedule Type: Lecture
Instructor: TBA
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level BY 210 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level CS 103 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level PUH 250 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level INFO 101 Minimum Grade of C
DescriptionResearch in Bioinformatics for non-honors students under the supervision of a faculty sponsor asis on concepts and application of informatics tools to molecular biology. Focus on experimental models to collect data from genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, applied statistics when it relates to experimental design, construction of bioinformatics tools into pipelines, representing biological data, biological sequence analysis, gene annotation, basic programming, basic web/data analysis programming, sharing of biological information, social/legal aspects of open science.
INFO 497: Research in Bioinformatics
CRN: 62796
Min CR: 0
Max CR: 4
Schedule Type: Undergraduate Research
Instructor: Elliot J Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level PSDO 200 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level CS 103 Minimum Grade of C
DescriptionResearch in Bioinformatics for non-honors students under the supervision of a faculty sponsor.
INFO 498: Honors Bioinformatics Research
CRN: 62797
Min CR: 0
Max CR: 4
Schedule Type: Capstone Course Undergraduate Research
Instructor: Elliot J Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level PSDO 200 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level CS 103 Minimum Grade of C
DescriptionHonors Research is an innovative course that will provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in rigorous scholarly practice of the core bioinformatics skills necessary for performing independent research. Program faculty will closely work with students to identify a project that explores an area of interest for the student based on the integration of prior learning. Students will be performing bioinformatics analyses on laboratory data or publicly available large-scale data, incorporate quality control and develop software pipelines.
INFO 499: Bioinformatics Capstone
CRN: 63543
Min CR: 3
Schedule Type: Lab Capstone Course
Instructor: Elliot J Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level INFO 403 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level INFO 404 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level PSDO 200 Minimum Grade of C
DescriptionStudents will be allowed to rotate to different program faculty or continue with their mentor from BY/CS 498 Bioinformatics Capstone Research I. With close mentoring and guidance from program faculty, the student will identify a capstone project or continue their existing bioinformatics project. The capstone project is expected to culminate in a formal scholarly work reflecting integration of the scientific knowledge gained through the project. The scholarly work may take the form or a written manuscript or semester report.
INFO 601: Introduction to Bioinformatics
CRN: 62026
Min CR: 3
Schedule Type: Lecture Online
Instructor: Zechen Chong (P)
DescriptionStudents will be allowed to rotate to different program faculty or continue with their mentor from BY/CS 498 Bioinformatics Capstone Research I. Introduction to bioinformatics and computational biology, with emphasis on concepts and application of informatics tools to molecular biology. It covers biological sequence analysis, gene prediction, genome annotation, gene expression analysis, protein structure prediction, evolutionary biology and comparative genomics, bioinformatics databases, cloud computing, basic R-based data analysis, simple programming skills using Perl, Linux/Unix environment and command lines, visual analytics, and social/legal aspects of open science. It will have a class research project component.
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Summer 2023
INFO 497: Research in Bioinformatics
CRN: 46312
Min CR: 0
Max CR: 4
Schedule Type: Undergraduate Research
Instructor: Elliot J. Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level INFO 302 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level CS 303 Minimum Grade of C
DescriptionResearch in Bioinformatics for non-honors students under the supervision of a faculty sponsor
INFO 498: Honors Bioinformatics Research
CRN: 46313
Min CR: 0
Max CR: 4
Schedule Type: Capstone Course Undergraduate Research
Instructor: Elliot J. Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level PSDO 200 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level CS 103 Minimum Grade of C
Description
Honors Research is an innovative course that will provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in rigorous scholarly practice of the core bioinformatics skills necessary for performing independent research. Program faculty will closely work with students to identify a project that explores an area of interest for the student based on the integration of prior learning. Students will be performing bioinformatics analyses on laboratory data or publicly available large-scale data, incorporate quality control and develop software pipelines.
INFO 499: Bioinformatics Capstone
CRN: 46314
Min CR: 3
Schedule Type: Lab Capstone Course
Instructor: Elliot J. Lefkowitz (P)
PrerequisitesUndergraduate level INFO 403 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level INFO 404 Minimum Grade of C and Undergraduate level PSDO 200 Minimum Grade of C
Description
Students will be allowed to rotate to different program faculty or continue with their mentor from BY/CS 498 Bioinformatics Capstone Research I. With close mentoring and guidance from program faculty, the student will identify a capstone project or continue their existing bioinformatics project. The capstone project is expected to culminate in a formal scholarly work reflecting integration of the scientific knowledge gained through the project. The scholarly work may take the form or a written manuscript or semester report.