Master of Science in Translational Research (MSTR) Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics

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The rapidly emerging field of biomedical informatics defines how we compare and evaluate health data to both understand and introduce improvements to care (medical informatics), as well as the use of health data to conduct discovery-based investigation of biological systems (bioinformatics).

A Bioinformatics/ Biomedical Informatics concentration in the MSTR degree program was designed to introduce students to informatics and to provide a framework through which data science skills can be utilized in their research. Thus, we focus on the following objectives:

  • Introduce students to informatics and its use in research
  • Develop knowledge to facilitate productive interactions and/or collaboration with expert informatics specialists
  • Develop a capability around a specific computational tool or analysis pipeline
  • Develop a capability of rudimentary programming and data processing

The concentration is appropriate for students who would like to develop a specific type of computational skill set or experimental pipeline to analyze data they have generated, as well as students who are not sure what particular data type or set they will utilize in the future, and instead aim to develop general computational skills and approaches to augment their research objectives. Indeed, no prior programming or data science skills are required to select this track.

Bioinformatics / Biomedical Informatics Concentration Director: Ben Voight, PhD

Degree Requirements (12 credit units):

MTR Core Courses

MTR 6000 Introduction to Biostatistics
MTR 6010 Review Writing (with an emphasis on Bioinformatics)
MTR 6020 Proposal Development
MTR 6030 Disease Measurement
MTR 6040 Scientific and Ethical Conduct
MTR 6050 Manuscript Writing

Labs

MTR 9999-001 Lab (with an emphasis on Bioinformatics)
MTR 9999-002 Lab (with an emphasis on Bioinformatics)

Thesis

MTR 6070 Thesis (with an emphasis on Bioinformatics)
MTR 6080 Thesis (with an emphasis on Bioinformatics)

Required Courses

MTR/CIS/GCB 5350 Introduction to Bioinformatics or
EPID 6000/BMIN 5030 Data Science for Biomedical Informatics
One (1) Advanced Elective in Data Science/Statistics

Suggested Electives (Choose 1 c.u.)