Program of Study
The Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Track, and the CBB PhD program that most of the Track students join at the end of their first year, are intended to prepare students for careers in academic research, education, and biotechnology. With the help of a faculty advisory committee, each student plans a program that includes courses, seminars, laboratory rotations, and independent reading.
Students are expected to achieve competency in three core areas:
- computational biology and bioinformatics
- biological sciences, with a particular focus on genomics and related areas; and
- informatics, with a particular focus on computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics.
The courses taken to satisfy the core areas of competency may vary considerably, but a typical program will include nine courses and must include 3 of the following courses: Biomedical Data Science: Mining and Modeling, Dynamical Systems Biology or Clinical and Translational Informatics. Completion of the core curriculum will usually take 3 to 4 semesters, depending in part on the prior training of the student. The training environment includes numerous seminars and speakers, journal clubs, and special-topic seminar courses. The total time to complete the Ph.D. program should be approximately five years.