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School of Arts and SciencesSchool of Engineering and Applied ScienceSchool of MedicineBioinformaticsMasters in Biomedical EngineeringMasters in BiotechnologyMasters in Medical Physics

Bioinformatics

The recent explosion of new knowledge about the essential properties of life--as gleaned from the Human Genome Project and other similar efforts--along with rapid-fire advances in computer technology have laid the foundation for the development of the rapidly emerging fields of bioinformatics and computational biology. These disciplines deal with the management, analysis, and visualization of the flood of information generated in molecular biology, genomics, and other areas of biology and biomedicine. These fields not only provide the tools and infrastructure necessary to support biological research into the next century, but are challenging areas of research in their own right. Progress in bioinformatics and computational biology requires that biologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians work in close collaboration, with significant cross-disciplinary training.

To provide an academic base for continuing research and education in this nascent field, a Center for Bioinformatics has been established at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center draws faculty from the Schools of Medicine (SOM), Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), and Arts and Sciences (SAS). Among only a handful of academic groups dedicated strictly to bioinformatics, the new Center's base of operations rests in the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, an organizational blending of medical and engineering faculties to support enhanced research, educational and business initiatives for bioengineering projects. It is jointly sponsored by the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science (IRCS), and directed by Susan Davidson (Computer and Information Science, SEAS), Co-Director, and Warren Ewens (Biology, SAS), Associate Director in charge of education.

Undergraduate Degree Programs

Since 1997 the University of Pennsylvania has offered two undergraduate degree programs in Computational Biology . Within the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), the Biology department offers a concentration in Computational Biology. In addition to a standard biology curriculum, students are expected to take computer science courses in programming, data structures and algorithms, statistics and discrete mathematics. Within the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), a BAS in Computational Biology is offered, which requires that students augment a basic computer science curriculum with courses in biology, chemistry, genetics and statistics. Both degree programs have a year-long capstone course in computational biology that is co-taught by faculty in computer science, biology and genetics.

For more information on Undergraduate Degree Programs in Bioinformatics, please visit http://www.cbil.upenn.edu/UPCB/undergraduate.html

Master’s Degree Programs

A recent initiative by SEAS and SAS, the Master's in Biotechnology degree program has also been offered since 1997. Of particular interest here is the concentration in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. The program is directed at students who are seeking an industrial career in the biotechnology and/or pharmaceutical industries, and is suitable for students with a wide range of backgrounds--for example, biology, chemistry and computer science. Courses include biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics, statistics, programming languages, algorithms, databases, and a year-long capstone course in computational biology. To enrich the program, a summer internship program with participating pharmaceutical and biotech companies is being planned.

For more information on the Masters Degree in Biotechnology, please visit http://www.upenn.edu/biotech/index.html

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Ph.D. Degree Programs

The award of an NSF Research Training Grant in Computational Biology allowed us to formalize a Ph.D. educational training component over the past few years. The graduate and postdoctoral programs (the latter a specialized Career Conversion Program) are now supported by funding from a National Institutes of Health Research Training Grant. The graduate program supports qualified students who have been accepted as Ph.D. students in either the Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS), the Department of Biology or a graduate group within the Biomedical Graduate Studies program. Students take approved courses in appropriate areas outside their main department, so as to obtain a rounded training in both computer science and biology, and participate in research seminar series spanning the departments involved.

For more information on Ph.D. Programs in Computational Biology, please visit http://www.cbil.upenn.edu/UPCB/graduate.html

Postdoctoral Career Conversion Program

Postdoctoral fellowship positions are available for qualified individuals wishing to undertake a Career Conversion Program. In this program, students with a Ph.D. in the biological sciences obtain an M.S.E. in computer science in parallel with somewhat abbreviated postdoctoral training. This program is designed to take Ph.D. biologists with the aptitude and desire through the full CIS M.S.E. program. The program is expected to take three years, at the end of which the student will have an M.S.E. in CIS and the equivalent of two years of postdoctoral training. Funding is restricted to U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Postdoctoral fellowship positions are also available for individuals with demonstrated interdisciplinary research interests. Particular areas of interest include physical and genetic mapping, biological databases, multiple sequence alignment, phylogeny construction, sequence search and analysis, simulation of control pathways, statistical methods, and discrete algorithms and combinatorial optimization in biology.

For more information on Postdoctoral Career Conversion Program, please visit http://www.cbil.upenn.edu/UPCB/postdoc.html

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Biological Engineering Network at the University of Pennsylvania
1010 Vagelos Research Labs / 3340 Smith Walk / Philadelphia PA 19104-6383
tel. 215-573-6813 ~ fax. 215-573-6815 ~ e-mail: ben-penn@pobox.upenn.edu