Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is an up-and-coming academic subject and research area that combines modern information sciences (informatics, mathematics, and statistics) with the life sciences (biology, chemistry, pharmacy, medicine, biotechnology, and food technology). Bioinformatics deals with questions of informatics that arise with the application of new technologies and a rapidly growing quantity of data in the life sciences. The discipline is also of continuously increasing significance in medicine and drug discovery.

The exponential growth in biological data generated by national and international research projects provides a highly inviting field of application for modern bioinformatics. The use of informatics methods first made mathematical modeling possible in the biosciences, as well as the analysis of new kinds and large quantities of data. Yet the potential for applying informatics to the biosciences still exceeds its current application.

In industry, bioinformatics is perceived as a key technology. It is not least young biotechnology companies that are reliant on job applicants with specific, interdisciplinary competencies. Though the methods of bioinformatics have already been applied on an industrial scale, there are few graduates of this interdisciplinary academic subject to date. 

Which further expertise and skills will I acquire?

Not only will graduates have been able to fundamentally broaden their skills in the information and life sciences, they will also have acquired a completely individual competency profile.

Depending on the choices you make in creating your curriculum, it will cover content from the specialties of algorithmic bioinformatics, sequence analysis, systems biology, structural bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, genome analysis, databases and data mining, project management, software engineering, statistics, structural biology, genetics / genomics, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, and biotechnology.

During the course of the degree, you can also acquire experience of working in interdisciplinary teams as well as handling pertinent research questions.

Which professional opportunities can I take up with this qualification?

The successful completion of the Master of Science opens up many career options. You may enter, via a doctoral degree, into research. Or you work in a corporation. There, you develop bioinformatic applications and implement them. Thus, for example, you develop new medicines in pharmaceutical companies. Beyond which, corporate consultancy offers good career prospects.