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Master's in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is a very active interdisciplinary field of research. Within the past 50 years, advances in biological research have revolutionised our understanding of the molecular basis of life: From the 1940s, when it was first realised that genetic information is encoded in the DNA, and to today when we know the complete DNA sequence for a number of species - including Homo sapiens. This and other major breakthroughs have changed the science of biology for good. Just a few years ago, genes were studied one by one, whereas today, new experimental technologies allow us to survey all the genes in an organism, as well as their activity levels and complex interactions.

Computers are necessary to process and analyse the enormous amounts of data from such experiments and this is where bioinformatics is essential. Bioinformatics (or computational biology) aims at solving biological problems using mathematical, statistical and computational techniques. Modern biological and medical research cannot be done without bioinformatics.

• You will learn the fundamentals of bioinformatics, which include sequence analysis, protein and RNA structural analysis, genomics, phylogenetics, analysis of high-throughput data, machine learning methods etc.
• Only one third of the courses are mandatory, so you will have plenty of opportunity to specialise in your favourite topic through elective courses, small research projects and, of course, your thesis work.
• Students with advanced bioinformatics skills are in high demand in both academia and industry because the new experimental methods produce very large amounts of data, which require computational analysis
• Alumni of the bioinformatics program are found both in leading biotech industry positions and in research positions at different universities
  

Programme strengths

• Tailor-made courses. The courses in the program are custom-made to give students the skill-set we think every computational biologist should have - designed by distinguished research leaders and teachers in bioinformatics. 
• Great teacher team. The teachers on the program are both recognized bioinformatics scientists with several Nature and Science papers. Professor Anders Krogh, a pioneer in bioinformatics, the founder of the program and leader of the Bioinformatics Centre, is the author of one of the most popular text-books in bioinformatics. 
• Hands-on and flexibility. Most students appreciate the possibility to do smaller, hands-on research projects leading up the final master thesis - these are extremely hands-on within one of the research group and can be designed to fit specific learning goals that students have. We also encourage students to do projects with companies or research groups from other departments. 
• Stability and innovation: The program has been running 10 years, which means that we have ample experience in teaching. At the same time, we have continuously improved the program during these years. 
• Many students are recruited as Phd students after their thesis project

 Programme structure

The MSc programme is a two-year programme equivalent to 120 ECTS credit points. Most of these (90 ECTS credit points) are obtained from courses and small projects. The final Master's thesis is 30 ECTS credit points, which corresponds to approximately six months of work. The MSc programme is taught in English. This means that lectures are in English, as well as your reports and exams. Please see the links to the left for more details.