Biology, Bioinformatics Concentration (Thesis Option), M.S.

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Application/Acceptance: Interested students must apply for admission to the M.S. program and the biotechnology concentration. In addition to the personal statement, a second letter must be submitted that provides a rationale for entering this concentration and a description of three specific areas of training that the individual would like to pursue. In addition to the M.S. program admission requirements, applicants to the Biotechnology concentration must have completed CHEM 6600 (Biochemistry) or its equivalent with a grade of “B” or higher. Admission to the concentration will be made by the Biotechnology Area Committee on the basis of credentials and is dependent on space availability.

Degree Requirements

Bioinformatics has grown from the creation of large biological databases that required computational approaches for efficient manipulation and analysis to a multi-faceted discipline that also includes microarray technology, statistical analysis, and molecular modeling. We offer non-thesis and thesis options for this interdisciplinary degree. The non-thesis option requires a minimum of 40 semester credit hours of coursework and a non-thesis report. The thesis option requires a minimum of 26 semester hours of coursework and 14 credit hours of research. Biology and Chemistry courses must be selected from courses numbered 6000 and 8000. (Biol and Chem 7000-7999 are not applicable toward the M.S. Degree in Biology.) Math and Computer Science courses at the 7000 level that serve as prerequisites for 6000 and 8000-level interdisciplinary courses may be applied towards the coursework requirement.

Coursework Must Include

1. One course in biochemistry. This requirement may be waived if the student has taken and successfully completed an equivalent undergraduate course with a grade of B or higher. 2. BIOL 6564 Advanced Genetics (4) 3. BIOL 6640 Fundamentals of Bioinformatics (4) 4. Two seminar courses this must include at least one BIOL 8700 and can include a second BIOL 8700 or BIOL 6960 or BIOL 6970. 5. Fifteen hours of interdisciplinary coursework to be selected from among the following:

CSC 6310 - Parallel and Distributed Computing 4 Hours
CSC 6350 - Software Engineering 4 Hours
CSC 6710 - Database Systems 4 Hours
CSC 6730 - Data Visualization 4 Hours
CSC 6740 - Data Mining 4 Hours
CSC 6810 - Artificial Intelligence 4 Hours
CSC 8630 - Advanced Bioinformatics 4 Hours
CSC 8850 - Advanced Machine Learning 4 Hours
MATH 6544 - Biostatistics 3 Hours
MATH 6548 - Methods of Regression and Analysis of Variance 3 Hours
STAT 8540 - Advanced Methodologies in Biostatistics 3 Hours
* Course counts towards degree requirements.

For the Thesis Option

1. An approved and successfully defended thesis proposal. The guidelines for the written proposal and oral defense are similar to those for the Biology M.S. thesis proposal; however, the thesis topic must be on a topic that includes a relevant bioinformatics component and one of the thesis committee must be from the math or computer science department. 2. Fourteen hours of BIOL 8999 Thesis Research 3. A thesis. 4. A final oral presentation directed primarily to defense of the thesis.