Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Admission Requirements

Bachelor’s degree with excellent/good grades in Biological Science or related fields and basic knowledge of mathematics and programming, or Computer Science and basic knowledge of biology; CV & motivation letter; upper-intermediate level of English language (B2 according to CEFR)*

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 leading PhD programs in Systems Biology.

Program Description

Currently, computational methods are widely used in biology mostly due to the fact that research inevitably comes with Big Data. Thus, one need to possess the skills to be able to work with large amounts of data and to interpret them correctly. 

Our program trains a new generation of professionals capable of developing and applying bioinformatics methods to solve non-trivial problems arising in fundamental and experimental biology. The students will gain an opportunity to complete the full path from high-throughput data to computational analysis and to testable hypotheses in several research areas.

The studying at the program presupposes choosing one of the two specializations:

1. Data Analysis in Biology and Medicine: we teach students with biological and medical background the skills of programming, data processing and statistical analysis and their application in different fields of bioinformatics

2. Algorithmic Bioinformatics: designed for students with informatics, mathematics and other technical background who want to gain the basic biology expertise and advanced courses in statistics, algorithms and data structures

Benefits of the Program

• the Program is conducted in collaboration with the Bioinformatics Institute in St. Petersburg and International Laboratory “Computer Technologies” at ITMO;

• the students will work with some of the best Computer Science experts from ITMO and Biology specialists from all over the world;

• 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 Washington University in St. Louis, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, etc.

Program Contents

1 Semester

• Statistics / Advanced Statistics - 3 credits

• Data Processing and Analysis - 3 credits

• Creative Technologies / High Tech Business Creation / Thinking - 4 credits

• English for Specific Purposes - 2 credits 

• Conflict Management / Emotional Intelligence / Internationalization of Research - 4 credits

• Applied Artificial Intelligence (online course) - 3 credits 

• Applied Bioinformatics (elective course) - 3 credits

• Higher Mathematics (elective course) - 2 credits 

• Introduction to Linux (elective course) - 2 credits 

• Research Work - 9 credits

Specialization 1. Data Analysis in Biology and Medicine

• Discrete Mathematics - 3 credits 

• Programming in Python - 3 credits 

Specialization 2. Algorithmic Bioinformatics

• Molecular Biology - 3 credits 

• Algorithms and Data Structures - 3 credits 

2 Semester

• Systems Biology - 4 credits

• Population and Medical Genetics - 4 credits

• Scientific Python - 3 credits

• English for Specific Purposes - 2 credits 

• High Performance Computing - 3 credits

• Applied Statistics (elective course) - 2 credits 

• Research Work - 9 credits

3 Semester

• Structural Bioinformatics - 4 credits

• Systems Biology - 3 credits

• Research Work - 6 credits

• Research Internship - 6 credits

Specialization 1. Data analysis in Biology and Medicine

• Metagenomics - 4 credits

• Molecular Phylogenetics - 4 credits

• Biotechnology - 4 credits

Specialization 2. Algorithmic Bioinformatics

• Bioinformatics Algorithms - 4 credits

• Optimization Methods - 4 credits

• Advanced Machine Learning - 4 credits

4 Semester

• Research Internship - 15 credits 

• Senior Internship - 9 credits 

• Thesis Defence - 6 credits 

*The applicants are required to pass the 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! 

Contacts

• ITMO International Admission Office, international@itmo.ru 
• Alexey Sergushichev, Head of the Program, alserg@itmo.ru
• Lada Antonova, Program Coordinator, bioinf@itmo.ru 

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