Bioinformatics program established

The Bioinformatics Graduate Program was established in 2006, offering M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees to students doing research in the field of bioinformatics. This interdisciplinary graduate program, administered by the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, combines training in both biological and computational methodologies. 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 Genome Science & Technology Graduate program (GSAT), the Department of Statistics, the Bioinformatics, Empirical & Theoretical Algorithms Laboratory in Computer Science, the Genome Sciences Centre at the BC Cancer Agency (GSC), 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.