Faculty of Science – Leading creativity and innovation in the sciences
Bioinformatics - Undergraduate options
| Bioinformatics - quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Taught by | |
| Available as a specialisation for | |
| Further study options |
Bachelor of Science (Honours) (BSc(Hons)) in Bioinformatics Postgraduate Diploma in Science (PGDipSci) in Bioinformatics |
| Further information | |
| Other majors/specialisations you might be interested in | Biological Science | Computer Science | Mathematics | Applied Mathematics |
Bioinformatics involves the development and application of computational methods in biology, biotechnology and medicine, taking advantage of rapidly expanding databases including those related to biodiversity, genomics, proteomics and structural biology. The programme draws mainly on existing courses in biology, mathematics and computer science.
The rationale to develop a comprehensive degree programme in bioinformatics stems from a rapidly changing philosophy of how modern biological and biomedical research is conducted. The global availability of genome sequence information for human, animal, plant and micro-organism systems has led to the development of these new technologies. Scientists require the combined skills of molecular biology and computer science to exploit these data for the various applications. As these disciplines have traditionally been taught separately, there is now a severe world-wide shortage of people with these combined skills, and demand is expected to grow strongly throughout the next several decades as the new technologies are further developed.
Bachelor of Science (BSc) - Bioinformatics specialisation
- 15 points: COMPSCI 220
- 30 points: BIOINF 301, COMPSCI 369
- 15 points from BIOSCI 322, 350, 351, 353, 354, 356, MEDSCI 314
- 45 points from COMPSCI 314, 320, 335, 345, 351, 367, 373, MATHS 270, 326, 328, 340, 361, 362, 363, STATS 301, 302, 310, 320, 325, 330, 341, 351, 380
In addition to the 14 courses specified here, students should enrol in other courses from Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics according to the aspect of bioinformatics of greatest interest to them.
BSc planner - Bioinformatics (170 KB PDF)
Recommendations for courses appropriate for different approaches to Bioinformatics can be found below:
Pre-requisites guide - Biomedical Bioinformaticist (284 KB PDF)
Pre-requisites guide - Statistical Bioinformaticist (277 KB PDF)
Pre-requisites guide - Computational Evolutionary Biologist or Evolutionary Bioinformaticist (285 KB PDF)
Bioinformaticists find employment in public institutions and in the private sector.
For further information, refer to the Biological Sciences Undergraduate Handbook.
You can also visit the New Zealand's Bioinformatics Institute website
or contact:
Howard Ross
Course Coordinator
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86160
Email: h.ross@auckland.ac.nz
Faculty of Science Student Centre
Ground Floor, Building 301, 23 Symonds Street
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 87020
Fax: + 64 9 373 7431
Email: scifac@auckland.ac.nz
