The Graduate Program in Bioinformatics
One of the first programs of its kind, the Graduate Program in Bioinformatics offers unique interdisciplinary training in the science, engineering, medicine and ethics of twenty-first-century cell biology. It includes some 50 Faculty from five BU Schools and Colleges, as well as a group of outstanding adjunct Faculty from industrial and non-profit organizations. Our curriculum focuses on the molecular biology and the physics of the cell, and emphasizes the use of advanced mathematics and computation.
The Program is housed at BU's Life Science and Engineering Building at the heart of the Charles River Campus.
The research program includes state-of-the-art topics in systems biology, computational modeling of regulatory and metabolic networks, small-molecule and macromolecule docking, comparative genomics, protein design, genomic and proteomic biotechnology, microarray engineering and analysis, pharmacogenomics, structural biology, large-scale modeling of biological systems, RNA, computational studies of cancer and neurological disorders and functional genomics, synthetic gene networks and molecular computing and genetics.
Our dynamic environment is focused on students and helps them to gain experience in the field through academic and industrial rotations, internships, and a student seminar series. Our students regularly collaborate with Faculty to produce publications.
NIH Graduate Partnership Program (GPP)
Students may request consideration for admission to a special partnership program between Boston University and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) – the NIH bioinformatics division that, among other things, maintains Genbank. If admitted to the GPP, they will complete their academic requirements for the PhD at Boston University, then select a research director at NCBI and complete their thesis research in Bethesda, MD. A limited number of fellowships is available for participation in this NIH-BU partnership. The purpose of these fellowships is to stimulate collaboration between BU faculty and NIH intramural scientists, and to provide Bioinformatics students with the opportunity to engage in research in computational laboratories on the NIH campus (possibly in collaboration with experimental laboratories at NIH). NIH is considered to be the premiere biomedical research establishment in the world. Applicants selected as candidates for this program will be invited to interview at both NIH and Boston University.
