Applied Bioinformatics

Over the past few years, bioinformatics has become the most exciting field in biology. This MSc course provides a unique hands-on learning experience in bioinformatics skills, by combining the latest advances in analysing high-throughput genomic, transcriptomic and metabolomics data. Cranfield’s Bioinformatics MSc is the first of its kind and the longest-running bioinformatics course in the UK. With more than 200 alumni over the past 10 years, it has become the most popular postgraduate course in bioinformatics in Europe. Because Cranfield is a solely postgraduate university it means that every single taught module of the Applied Bioinformatics course is uniquely tailored to be master's level. That’s why it is the winner of the BBSRC’s Master’s Training Grant (MTG) award for the best course in life sciences.

Our taught modules cover in great depth a plethora of programming languages typically applied in bioinformatics, such as Python, Java, R and SQL, as well as modern web technologies, such as JavaEE, NoSQL and JavaScript. Furthermore, we have two dedicated taught modules focusing on established bioinformatics protocols for the latest next generation sequencing (NGS) and 3rd generation sequencing (3GS) technologies.

Who is it for?

This course aims to equip graduate scientists with the computational skills and awareness needed to process, analyse and interpret the vast amounts of biological data now becoming available. This course is equally suitable for candidates from life sciences disciplines who aim to gain the programming and computational skills through this course, and graduates with IT/computer science background who want to gain the molecular biology understanding to become bioinformaticians.

On completion of this course, you will be able to apply information technology and computational techniques to process genomic and genetic data, as well as developing novel drug discovery and diagnostic tools.

Additionally, you will gain the skills to design and implement software tools and databases using the latest advances in standalone and web-based technologies to fulfil the need of the research community.