Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Partner University: ITMO University

Career Options: bioinformatics experts in the fields of personalized medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, software development and many others. Besides, you may continue academic career by entering the leading PhD programs in Systems Biology.

Currently, computational methods are widely used in biology (due to the fact that research comes with Big Data). You need to have the skills to be able to work with large amounts of data and to interpret them correctly. This requires competence in both biology and computer science.

Simply put, the situation in modern biology is that to be just a biologist is often not enough. The Bioinformatics and Systems Biology program prepares a new generation of professionals capable of solving bioinformatics problems arising in experimental biology.

Benefits of the Program

• the Program is delivered collaboration with the Institute of Bioinformatics in St. Petersburg;
• the students have an opportunity to participate in internships at major research institutions and laboratories, as well as work on projects under the guidance of leading teachers at ITMO University, Washington University in St. Louis, INSERM, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, etc.
• every year, students participate in an international online competition for Bioinformatics, which attracts more than 3,000 participants from all over the world. Bioinformatics Competition problem sets are developed by the team from ITMO University — the only 7-time winner of the world's top programming competition. Winners receive valuable prizes and an invaluable experience!
• furthermore, as part of the program, there is an international Systems Biology Workshop. The organizers of the workshop are ITMO University and the Bioinformatics Institute and Washington University in St. Louis.

The students will gain

• competencies in Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science;
• proficiency in application of computational methods for solving problems in fundamental biology;
• an opportunity to complete the full path from high-throughput data to computational analysis and to testable hypotheses in several research areas;
• a chance to have programming courses taught in the cradle of world champions in programming.

Content of the Program

Key disciplines

• Discrete Mathematics
• Programming in Python
• Applied Statistics
• Systems Biology
• Molecular Phylogeny
• Population and Medical Genetics
• Metagenomics
• Structural Bioinformatics
• Research Project

The Curriculum of the Program

*The applicants are required to pass entrance examination successfully.

The list of entrance examination questions

How to apply?

To apply, please follow our step-by-step application guide.

Want to enroll at ITMO without entrance examinations or tuition fees? Learn more about our contests and competitions that will give you this amazing opportunity! 

Contact

• Alexey Sergushichev, Information Technologies and Programming Faculty
  alserg@corp.ifmo.ru

• Ksenia Spiridonova, Information Technologies and Programming Faculty
  bioinf@corp.ifmo.ru    
  k_spiridonova@corp.ifmo.ru

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