Palagi P., Appel R., Bairoch A., Bittar G., Bucher P., Chopard B., Goudet J., Guex N., Jongeneel C.V., Peitsch M.C., and Pellegrini C. (2001) A Masters Degree in Bioinformatics in Switzerland. The 9th International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology. Copenhagen (Denmark), 22-25 July 2001. (Abstract)
A Masters Degree in Bioinformatics in Switzerland Patricia M. Palagi, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1, rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
[email protected] Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics 2001 ISMB01 Satellite meeting on July 26, 2001 The Swiss experience of a Masters degree in bioinformatics arises from a joint collaboration of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and three faculties of the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne. The Masters' comprehensive one year program is divided into 8 modules applying informatics to genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. Eligible students must have a bachelor degree in Biology, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Medicine or Computer Sciences. They do not all have the same level of expertise in programming and molecular biology. Therefore, during the first semester, students with a background in Computer sciences are taught notions of biology and biochemistry, while life-sciences students are taught algorithmics and programming. Besides these two modules, the first semester proposes the modules Introduction to bioinformatics, Biological modelling and statistics, and Databases for life sciences. In the second semester, the modules are divided into Macromolecular sequence analysis, Three-dimensional structure analysis, Phylogenetics analysis, and Genomics, Transcriptomics and Proteomics analysis. Details of the Masters curriculum will be presented, with a special emphasis in the current issues and overall experiences.
