Biological sciences is more data driven than ever before and bioinformatics is now central to modern biological research. Our degrees in Bioinformatics and Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics will prepare you with in-demand skills for this growing area. You will build a strong foundation for PhD training or a rewarding career in the biotechnology, life sciences, environmental and pharmaceutical sectors doing roles such as consultancy, management, research, software development, data analytics or finance.
You will be taught by world-leading academics who are actively engaged in developing bioinformatics tools and who have specialist expertise in genome sequencing, proteomics, evolution, ecology, psychology, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. The majority of our lecturers on our programmes are also Fellows of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence.
The taught modules of our courses provide rigorous training in the computational skills needed to deal with genomes, in statistics and in industry-standard programming languages such as Python and R. These are highly useful genomic skills that will allow you to write software which analyses and visualises data for you. Unlike some Master’s courses, there is no programming experience needed as our courses are specifically designed for students with bioscience or natural science backgrounds.
Another advantage of our courses is the close-knit community of our students. We have small cohorts of around 30 students on the two programmes who share many of the same modules together. During the first semester with the teaching modules, there is a lot of opportunity to interact with the other students and the group project for Bioinformatics students means you will be working closely with two or three other people. In addition, for the research projects on all of our MSc’s you become a fully integrated member of a research group and will work alongside PhD students and our world leading academics.
Students studying Ecology and Evolutionary Genomics also have the opportunity to develop key field skills on the trip to Borneo, a biodiversity hotspot, where you will be exposed to a wealth of animals within a tropical forest. There are even gibbons and orangutangs right above the lecture theatres! A strong emphasis is placed on practical training, in particular, training in survey methods, data collection, analysis and presentation. The combination of acquired skills in genome analysis as well as ecology and evolution are rare and will help set you apart from other graduates.