The Bioinformatics Graduate Program offers M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees to students doing research in the field of bioinformatics. Fastrack from M.Sc. to Ph.D. is available.
The program integrates academic centres in computer science, statistics, molecular biology, and biotechnology, with translational research groups at hospitals and at the clinical interface. Members of the Centre for High Through-put Biology (CHiBi), the Genome Science & Technology Graduate program, the department of Statistics, the Bioinformatics, Empirical & Theoretical Algorithmics Laboratory in Computer Science, the Genome Sciences Centre at the BC Cancer Agency, and the Michael Smith Laboratories have been instrumental in developing the current program. The program also integrates other departments at UBC in the faculties of Medicine, Science, Forestry, and Land and Food Systems that broadly support bioinformatics research in the life sciences.
Students can enter the program in one of two ways:
- Through the CIHR-funded bioinformatics training program which operates as a scholarship program for a select number of students who are undertaking a Bioinformatics M.Sc.degree. Students wishing to apply for these scholarships should apply directly through the website at:
http://bioinformatics.bcgsc.ca/howtoapply/ - Applying through the conventional graduate student route by securing the commitment of a supervisor, who is a faculty member of the program. The list of potential supervisors can be found at program faculty. Students applying through this route will not receive CIHR-funding, nor do they get to participate in rotations, each lasting 4 months, for a total of 1 year. Students doing the CIHR-funded route will not start their actual thesis project until 1 year later, when rotations are finished.
